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THE 


U35 7 


TREATMENT 



DISEASE 


BY 



AGENCIES. 


A GUIDE FOR 


TREATING THE SICK 


WITHOUT MEDICINE. 


BY 31. G. KELLOGG, 



PUBLISHED AT ^ 

THE OFFICE OF THE HEALTH REFORMER, 
BATTLE CREEK, MICII. 






i 


'n j 

Itt 


k h rf AO 


TO THE READER Yt 



<*a\ 


The writer would acknowledge that he is indebted to the 
teachings and writings of such men as Trail, Graham, Shew, 
Alcott, Tanner, and others, for many of the ideas expressed 
in this work. He would also state that it has been his aim 
to present his ideas in the clearest language possible; there¬ 
fore, whenever he has found ideas which he wished to pre¬ 
sent in this work stated by others in a clearer manner than 
he could well express them, he has in such instances used 
the language of some of the above-mentioned authors, al¬ 
though no mention is made of the authors in connection 
with the language thus used. 

In giving directions for treating special diseases in this 
work, the object has not been to present an unvarying rou¬ 
tine of baths for the patient, but to suggest several baths, and 
other applications of water, any of which would be suitable 
to the disease. Three other pamphlets, entitled “ Good 
Health, and how to Preserve It,” “Nature and Cause of 
Disease,” and “The Bath, Its Use and Application” (see 
Catalogue), have been prepared, each of which is complete 
in itself, while the four together present the general princi¬ 
ples of the hygienic system. If the reader will procure 
these pamphlets and study them carefully, he will fully un¬ 
derstand why and how water and other hygienic agents are 
applicable in the treatment of disease, and will experience 
no difficulty in prescribing for the treatment of disease with¬ 
out the help given in connection with the description of special 
diseases in this work. M. G. K. 

Battle Creek, Mich., Nov. 1, 1873. 


Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1873 , by 
THE HEALTH REFORM INSTITUTE, BATTLE CREEK, MICH., 
In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington, D. C. 








CONTENTS, ALPHABETICALLY ARRANGED, 


PAGE. 

Abdomen, Organs of, . 16 

“ Diseases within,. 18 

Accidents. 150 

Ague, . 71 

Anaemia, . 33 

Animal Poisons, . 20 

Apoplexy, . 95 

Ascites, . 141 

Asthma, . 115, 121 

Bladder, Inflammation of, . 145 

“ Paralysis of,. 145 

Bleeding from the Nose, . 40 

“ “ “ Lungs, . 41 

“ “ “ Stomach, . 42 

“ “ “ Kidneys, . 43 

“ “ “ Rectum, . 44 

“ “ “ Uterus, . 44 

Blood, Morbid Conditions of,. 33 

“ Poverty of, . 33 

“ Fullness of, . 37 

Brain, Location of, . 12 

“ its Functions ,( . 12 

“ Diseases of,. 13, 77, 92 

“ Inflammation of, . 92 

“ Congestion of, . 93 

“ Fever of, . 77 

Bronchial Tubes, Location of, . 15 

“ “ Inflammation of, . 117 

Bronchitis, Acute, . 117 

“ Chronic, . 118 

Burns, . 150 

Cancer,. 56 

Canker in the Mouth, . 109 

Catarrh. 107 

Causes of Disease, . 10 





































IV 


CONTEXTS. 


PAGE. 

Cerebro-Spinal Meningitis, . 77 

Chicken-Pox, . 85 

Chills, Congestive, . 74 

Chlorosis, . 36 

Choking, .. 113 

Cholera, Malignant or Asiatic, . 133 

“ Morbus, . 135 

“ Infantum, . 136 

Clergyman’s Sore Throat, . 114 

Colon, Location of, . 17 

Colic, Wind, ... 137 

“ Lead, . 138 

“ Copper, . ... 138 

Congestions, . 45 

“ of the Brain, . 93 

“ of the Lungs, . 118 

Constipation, . 138 

Constitutional Treatment, . 155 

Consumption, Pulmonary, . 121 

Convulsions, . 104 

Corpulency, . 59 

Croup, . 112 


Decayed Teeth, . 

Duodenum, . 

Diet for the Sick, . 

Diptheria, . . 

Disease, Causes of, .. 

“ General, .. 

“ Local, . 

“ Diagnosis of, . 

“ Buies for Determining, 

“ Language of, . 

“ How to Locate a, . 

“ Names of, . 

Diseases, Classification of, . 

“ of the Brain, .. 

“ “ “ Mouth, . 

“ “ “ Throat, . 

“ “ “ Chest, . 

“ “ “ Heart, . 

“ “ “ Abdomen, . 

“ “ “ Intestines,. 

“ “ *• Liver, . 

“ “ “ Pancreas, . 


. 109 

.... 17 

... 23 

. Ill 

. 19 

. 33 

. 91 

. 26 

.... 27 
.... 29 

.... 30 

.... 31 

.... 32 

. 13 

.... 108 
14, 110 
16, 118 
.... 125 
16, 129 
.... 18 
16, 141 
. 18 














































CONTEXTS. 


V 


Diseases of the Kidneys, 
“ “ “ Spleen, . 

“ “ “ Skin, .. 

“ Unknown,. 

Diarrhea, . 

Dizziness. 

Dropsy, General, . 

“ of the Head, .... 

“ “ “ Chest, ... 

“ “ “ Heart, .., 

“ “ “ Abdomen 

Drowning,. 


PAGE. 

.... 19 
.... 148 

. 150 

. 152 

.... 131 

. 98 

.... 51 

52, 94 

52, 120 

r,Q 


53, 141 
. 151 


Earache, . 99 

Ear, Inflammation of, . 99 

Encephalitis, . 77 

Epilepsy, . 105 

Epistaxsis, . 40 

Erysipelas, . 89 

Eye, Inflammation of, . 100 


Fevers, General Remarks Concerning, 

“ Classification of, .. 

“ General Causes of, . 

“ General Treatment of, . 

“ Inflammatory, . 

“ Intermittent, . 

“ Ague, . 

“ Nervous, . 

“ Typhoid, .. 

Putrid, ... 

“ Typhus, . 

“ Symptomatic,'. 

“ Brain, . 

“ Spotted, .. 

“ Scarlet, . 

“ Hay, . 


G2 

G3 

67 

67 

70 

71 
71 
74 

74 

75 
75 

<*r 
11 
t- *. 
11 

77 

87 

115 


Gall-Stones, . 142 

Glands, Lachrymal, . 13 

“ Salivary, . 18 

“ Tonsils, . 13 

“ Lymphatic,. 15 

“ Mesenteric, . !'•* 

Goiter, . 118 












































VI 


CONTEXTS. 


P.V3E. 


Gout, . 59 

Hay Asthma, . 115 

Haemoptysis, . A) 

Ilasmatetnesis, . 42 

Hsematuria, . 43 

Health, Language of, . 27 

Headache, . 97 

Heart Disease, . 125 

Hemorrhage, . 38 

Hemorrhoids, . 139 

Hydrocephalus, . 94 

Hygienic Medication, . 9 

Hyperaemia, . 37 

Hysteria, . 105 

Ilium.. 17 

Inflammation, General, . 46 

“ Events of, . 47 

“ Rationale of, . 49 

“ Varieties of, . 49 

“ General Treatment of, . 50 

“ of Brain, . 92 

‘ • of the Ear, . 98 

“ of the Eye, . 100 

“ the Spinal Cord, . 101 

“ of the Tongue, . 108 

“ of the Tonsils, . 110 

“ of the Stomach, . 128 

“ of the Bowels, . 129 

“ of the Kidneys, . 143 

“ of the Blac der, . 145 

“ of the Uterus, . 147 

Intestines, . 18 

Insanity, . 96 

Influenza, . 108 

Itch, . 150 

Jejunum, . 18 

Kidneys, . 18 

“ Bleeding from, . 43 

“ Inflammation of, . 143 

Lachrymal Glands,. 13 










































CONTENTS. 


vii 


PAfi E. 


Lachrymal Ducts,. 13 

Language of Health, . 27 

“ Disease, . 29 

Leucorrhoea, . 147 

Liver, . 18 

Local Diseases, . 91 

Lungs, Bleeding from, . 41 

“ Congestion of, . 118 

Lung Fever, . 119 

Lymphatic Glands,. 15 

Measles, . 85 

Menses, Suppression of, . 148 

Mineral Poisons,. 20 

Mouth, Organs of, . 13 

“ Diseases of,. 108 

Mumps, . 109 


Neuralgia, . 90 

Nose-Bleeding, . 40 


Obesity, . 59 

Organs Internal, . ... 12 

“ Language of, . 27 


Painful Urination, . 

Paralysis, General, . 

“ of the Bladder, 

Pelvic Organs, . 

Pericardium, .. 

Piles, . 

Pleurisy, . 

Plethora, . 

Pleura, . 

Pneumonia, . 

Poisons, . 


14G 

103 

145 

19 

15 
139 
119 

37 

16 
119 

20 


Rectum, Bleeding from the, . 44 

Rheumatism, Acute, . 61 

“ Chronic, . 62 

Rickets, . 58 

Rules for Nursing the Sick, . 21 

Salivary Glands, . 13 

“ “ Location of, . 13 









































Vlll 


CONTENTS. 


Page. 

Scald?, . 150 

Scarlatina, .. 87 

Sciatica,. 90 

Scrofula, . 54 

Sigmoid Flexure, . I 7 

Skin, Diseases of, .. 150 

Sleeplessness, . 100 

Small-Pox, . 80 

Sore Throat,. 87, 111, 114 

Spinal Cord, Inflammation of, . 101 

Spotted Fever,. 77 

Stomach, Bleeding from,. 42 

Swine-Pox,. 85 


Typhus Fever, . 75 

Teeth, Decayed,. 109 

Throat, Organs of, . 14 

“ Diseases of, . 15, 110 

Thorax, Organs of, . 15 

“ Diseases of, . 16, 117 

Thrush, . 109 

Tonsils, . 13 

“ Inflammation of, . 110 

Tongue, Inflammation of, . 108 

“ Ulceration of, . 108 

Typhoid Fever,. 74 


Uterus, Bleeding from, . 44 

Uterine Displacements,. 148 

Uterus, Inflammation of, .'.. 147 

Urine, Incontinence of,. 146 

Urination, Painful, . 146 

Unknown Diseases, . 152 


Vaccination, . 84 

Variola, . 80 

Vegetable Poisons, . 20 


"Whooping-Cough,. 116 

Worms,. 139 






































THE TREATMENT OF DISEASE. 


GENERAL PROPOSITIONS. 

There is no system of medicine that is worthy 
of, or that demands, more careful study than does 
the hygienic system. In fact, a knowledge of 
hygiene is, or should be, the basis of all medical 
knowledge. 

There are three things to be considered by 
those who would be successful in the management 
of the sick. 

First, the nature of disease must be under¬ 
stood. Disease is remedial effort, is vital action, 
is an effort on the part of nature, i. e., the organ¬ 
ism, to expel impurities, or poisons and unusable 
* substances, from the system, and to overcome ob¬ 
structions to the circulation ; consequently, in all 
cases in which change of organic structure has 
not taken place, disease is self-limited in its nat¬ 
ure. Therefore, in treating the sick, we should 
seek to assist nature in her efforts instead of seek¬ 
ing, as do many physicians, to stop her efforts by 
breaking up the disease. Since disease is vital 
action, it follows that if we break up or "cure” 
disease, we stop Antal action. This should be 
avoided if possible, for the cessation of vital ac¬ 
tion is death. Fora full explanation of the nat¬ 
ure of disease, the reader is referred to a pam¬ 
phlet entitled, “ The Nature and Cause of Dis¬ 
ease.” See annexed catalogue. 



10 


TREATMENT OF JUSEASE. 


One of the chief reasons why so few of the sick 
recover is, the physicians give them medicines to 
“ cure ” their diseases, and this is effectually accom¬ 
plished by the patient’s expending his vitality in 
expelling the medicine, until there is not suffi¬ 
cient life force left to carry on the usual life proc¬ 
esses, and the patient dies, having been literally 
“ cured ” to death. 

Instead of endeavoring to stop vital action, we 
should seek to control and direct it. If one part 
of the system is inactive, we should strive to in¬ 
duce in it its normal or usual action; but we 
should never try to check vital action, except in 
those cases where the action is so violent as to 
cause a liability of the destruction of some of the 
organs or a disorganization of some of the tissues. 

In all the systems of medicine in which drug 
poisons are administered, the physician seeks to 
“ cure ” or stop the diseased action already exist¬ 
ing (which is simply an effort to expel impurities 
already in the system) by giving a drug to induce 
another diseased action (which is an effort to ex¬ 
pel the drug), which he has learned is self-limited 
(it ceases as soon as the drug is expelled). In¬ 
stead of doing this, we should ever seek to induce 
in every part of the organism just those actions 
which take place when the person is in health. 
That we cannot do this by administering drugs 
that make a well person sick is self-evident. 

The only way in which it is possible to induce 
healthy action in a diseased organism is by sup¬ 
plying those conditions on which health is based, 
and by the employment of those agents which 
are conducive to the maintenance of health. The 
reader is referred to a pamphlet entitled, “ Good 
Health,” where he will find the conditions on 


GENERAL PROPOSITIONS 


11 


which health is based fully explained. See an¬ 
nexed catalogue. 

Secondly, the condition of the patient must 
be understood, otherwise it will be impossible to 
tell what it is necessary to do to restore him to 
health. It is not enough to know that something 
is wrong, we must-know what is wrong if we 
would remedy the evil; and to know this, it is 
necessary that we have a knowledge of the loca¬ 
tion of the various organs of the body, and of the 
action of each when in health, otherwise we can¬ 
not tell with any certainty what organ of the 
body is diseased; consequently, not knowing the 
condition of the patient, whatever we do will be 
done blindly, and will be just as liable to be 
wrong as right—to do harm as good. 

It is a lack of knowledge as to the location and 
functions of the various organs of the body that 
constitutes the great barrier to a correct diagnosis 
of disease, and to its proper management by 
people generally. If the reader is not acquainted 
with these subjects, he should at once obtain 
some work on physiology and acquaint himself 
with at least these two branches of the subject. 
Space will not allow the introduction of much 
physiology in this work; yet it is essential that 
enough be presented to give the reader a correct 
idea of the location and action of the vital organs, 
as it is by a comparison of the symptoms mani¬ 
fested in disease with the known action of the or¬ 
gans in health that we are enabled to ascertain the 
condition of the patient. 

Thirdly, the causes of disease must be under¬ 
stood, and such as exist externally or are in the 
alimentary canal must be removed ; for it is evi¬ 
dent that all treatment administered while the 



12 


TREATMENT OF DISEASE. 


cause of the disease is still operating, unless it be 
for the removing of that cause, is useless. 

O J 

IMPORTANT INTERNAL ORGANS. 

THEIR LOCATION AND FUNCTIONS. 

The human body is naturally divided into four 
cavities, which contain the most important organs 
of the body. 

The first of these cavities is called the cranial 
cavity because it is within the cranium, or skull. 
It contains the brain and its membranes, the up¬ 
per portion of the spinal cord, which is called 
the medulla oblongata, certain ganglia or little 
brains, and the commencement of nine pairs of 
nerves. The brain is in two parts, a greater and 
lesser brain. The greater brain is called the cer¬ 
ebrum, and is situated in the front and upper 
portion of the skull, nearly filling it. The small¬ 
er brain is called the cerebellum, and is situated 
in the lower and back portion of the cranial cav¬ 
ity. 

It is the function of the brain to think and 
feel, to recognize the existence and relation of 
things, and to direct the organs of voluntary mo¬ 
tion, using the nerves which originate in the brain 
and spinal cord as its means of communication 
with those organs. 

The nerves of hearing, seeing, smelling, tasting, 

o 7 o 7 o 7 o 7 

and feeling, all originate in the brain. The spi¬ 
nal cord originates within the cranial cavity, and 
is continued downward through the spinal col¬ 
umn, sending off nerves between the joints of the 
various vertebral bones. The brain and spinal 
cord are both surrounded with membranes which 
may be diseased gis well as the substance of the 


LOCATION OF ORGANS. 


13 

brain and cord. The nerves, arteries, and veins, 
may be diseased also. The brain and cord and 
their membranes are liable to inflammation, con¬ 
gestion, the exudation of water or blood, or the 
formation of pus, to ulcers, tumors, abscesses, and 
cancers. The nerves of sense, and the mucous 
membrane in which each terminates, may be dis¬ 
eased. 

Just above the outer angle of the eye and 
lodged within a depression of the bone that forms 
the roof of the orbit is situated the lachrymal 
gland, whose function is to secrete a watery fluid 
—the tears. There is at the inner corner of each 
eye a little canal, called the lachrymal canal, 
which communicates with the nasal duct. The 
nasal duct is within the bones of the face and 
nose, and terminates in the lower portion of the 
nasal cavity. These canals and ducts convey the 
water from the eyes to the nose. When these 
ducts become stopped, the tears flow slowly, but 
constantly. 

Passing from the cranial cavity to the mouth, 
we And the tongue, palate, tonsils, fauces, teeth, 
salivary glands, all of which are liable to disease. 
The fauces are the extreme upper portion of the 
throat. 

The tonsils are two glands situated on either 
side of the upper portion of the fauces. The ton¬ 
sils secrete a fluid to moisten the throat. There 
are six of the salivary glands, whose function it 
is to secrete saliva. The two largest are situated 
on each side of the head just in front and a little 
below the ear. These are called the parotid 
glands. The two next in size are called the sub- 
maxillary glands, and 'are situated on either 


14 


TREATMENT OF DJSKASE. 


side just below and a little in front of the angle 
of the lower jaw. 

The two smallest, called the sublingual glands, 
are under the tongue, in contact with the lower 
jaw and near its center. Each of these glands is 
provided with a duct through which it sends its 
secretion, the saliva, to the mouth. The salivary 
glands may be inflamed, as in mumps, the tongue 
may be inflamed, as in mercurial salivation, the 
tonsils and fauces, as in quinsy. The principal 
organs of the throat are the pharynx, the oesoph¬ 
agus, the larynx, trachea, thyroid gland, several 
lymphatic glands, and blood-vessels. 

The pharynx consists of about four and one- 
half inches of the alimentary canal, commencing 
immediately back of the mouth. The oesophagus 
is also a portion of the alimentary canal, and is 
about nine inches in length, and connects the 
pharynx with the stomach. This organ lies 
mostly within the thorax. The larynx is situ¬ 
ated between the base of the tongue and the 
trachea or windpipe. By placing the thumb and 
finger on the throat, and at the same time swal¬ 
lowing, there will be felt a hard, cartilaginous 
tube, which rises as the action of swallowing is 
performed. This tube is the larynx, and contains 
the vocal cords, hence it is the organ of voice. 

The trachea is the windpipe. It is a cartilag¬ 
inous tube, about four and one-half inches in 
length and from three-quarters of an inch to an 
inch in diameter. It extends from the larynx to 
the lungs, where it divides into two branches, 
called the bronchial tubes. The thyroid gland 
is situated at the upper portion of the trachea. 
It consists of two lobes placed one each side of 
this tube. These lobes are connected by narrow, 


LOCATION OF ORGANS. 


15 


transverse portion. The function of this gland is 
unknown. 

There is quite a number of the lymphatic glands 
in the neck. They are principally situated a lit¬ 
tle beneath the skin, underneath the margin of 
the lower jaw, and in front of, under, and behind, 
the ears, also a few at the sides of the neck, just 
below the collar bone. These glands become in¬ 
flamed, and abscesses or ulcers are often formed if 
the person is scrofulous. The thyroid gland is 
liable to enlargement, as in goiter. The trachea, 
larynx, and pharynx, are liable to inflammation, 
as in croup, laryngitis, clergyman’s sore throat, 
putrid sore throat, scarlatina, diptheria, etc. 

The second cavity of the body is inclosed by 
the ribs, and separated from the abdomen by 
a large, thin, flat muscle, called the diaphragm. 
This cavity is called the thorax, which signifies a 
coat of mail, which the chest resembles. 

The principal organs within the thorax are the 
heart, lungs, and large blood-vessels. It contains 
also the pericardium, which is a membrane sur¬ 
rounding the heart, and containing fluid to lubri- 
cate it; also the pleura, a membrane that covers 
the lungs and lines the entire thorax, and also 
passes between the lungs and attaches to the 
breast-bone in front, and to the spine, and divides 
the thorax into two cavities, thereby preventing 
both lungs from becoming useless, as would other¬ 
wise result in case an opening was made into one 
side of the thorax. The function of the pleura is 
to secrete a lubricating fluid to moisten and lubri¬ 
cate the organs within the thorax. 

The bronchial tubes are the continuation of the 
trachea after it divides into two branches within 
the thorax. These again subdivide as they pass 


Hi 


THEATMENT OF DISEASE. 


into the lungs, and continue to subdivide until 
by their minute subdivisions and ramifications 
they form the air-cells of the lungs. 

The heart is liable to a change of structure or 
texture as is seen in organic disease of the heart. 
It is also liable to functional derangement, as is 
seen in palpitation and irregularity of pulse. It 
is also liable to inflammation and to rupture. The 
pericardium is liable to inflammation, and to ad¬ 
hesion to the heart, and to dropsical effusion, as 
in dropsy of the heart. 

The pleura is liable to inflammation, as in pleu¬ 
risy, or it may throw out water into the thoracic 
cavity, as in dropsy of the chest. The substance 
of the lungs may be inflamed, as in pneumonia, 
or lung fever, or tubercles and abscesses may form 
in them as in tubercular consumption. 

The mucous membrane of the bronchial tubes 
and air-cells may be inflamed, as in bronchitis, 
catarrhal consumption, and lingering consump¬ 
tion. The large arteries are liable to become 
weakened in places and give rise to blood tumors 
called aneurisms. 

The third cavity is the abdomen. This con¬ 
tains the stomach, liver, spleen, pancreas, kidneys, 
small intestines, the most of the large intestine, 
the omentum, mesentery, and peritoneum. The 
stomach is the principal organ of digestion. It 
lies immediately behind the front wall of the ab¬ 
domen under the lower ribs, and a little to the left. 
When moderately fulJ, it is usually about twelve 
inches in length and four inches in diameter. 
The stomach is liable to inflammation or great 
irritation when anything improper enters it or 
when food ferments within it, and to become dis¬ 
tended with gas, as in flatulency. Its secreting 


LOCATION OF GROANS. 


17 


vessels—the gastric follicles—may also become so 
diseased by overfeeding or improper feeding as 
to fail in the work of secreting gastric juice, and 
indigestion or dyspepsia is the result. 

The small intestines are that part of the aliment¬ 
ary canal where the most of the nutritive portion 
of the food is separated from the innutritive por¬ 
tion and absorbed preparatory to entering the cir¬ 
culation. They are about twenty feet in length. 

The first nine inches of the small intestine con¬ 
stitute the duodenum. It receives the food from 
the stomach, and the pancreatic juice, and the 
bile. After leaving the stomach, the food under¬ 
goes further digestion in the duodenum. The 
duodenum is liable to inflammation, caused by 
errors in diet, such as overeating or eating im- 

7 o o 

proper articles, or from acrid bile. 

The next eight or nine feet of the small intes- 

o 

tines form the jejunum, from jejunus—emp¬ 
ty—because usually found empty after death. 

The remainder of the small intestines is called 
the ileum—to twist—because of its numerous con¬ 
volutions. The small intestines lie in the central 
part of the abdomen. They are liable to inflam¬ 
mation, colic, and spasmodic contractions. 

The large intestine is about five feet in length. 
It commences on the right side at the lowest 
part of the abdominal cavity and passes upward to 
the liver, where it makes a short turn to the left, 
and passes transversely across the abdomen, pass¬ 
ing thence downward along the left side of the 
abdomen into the pelvis, where it makes a fold 
upon itself somewhat like the letter Z or S. This 
fold is called the sigmoid flexure. After making 
this fold, it passes through the pelvis along the 
posterior wall and terminates at the anus. The 


18 


TREATMENT OF DISEASE. 


last portion is called the rectum. The large in¬ 
testine is liable to acute inflammation, as in dys¬ 
entery, cholera, etc., and to chronic inflammation, 
as in diarrhea, also to hemorrhoidal tumors or piles 
and ulcers in the lower portion. The intestines, 
if foul, may contain worms, or they may become 
torpid, and contain large quantities of hardened 
feces, or they may be distended with gas or 
wind. 

The liver lies under the last six ribs on the 
right side and extends across the central line of the 
abdomen partially under the ribs on the left side. 
Its function is to excrete the bile elements from 
the blood. These are transmitted through the 
bile ducts to the gall bladder and duodenum. 
The liver is liable to acute and chronic inflam¬ 
mation, to abscesses, congestion, and to a change 
of structure. Gall stones may form in the bile 
ducts and gall bladder. 

The pancreas is a gland about six or eight 
inches in length, one and a half inches broad, and 
three-fourths of an inch thick. It lies behind 
the stomach. Its function is to secrete a digest¬ 
ive fluid called the pancreatic juice. This organ 
is liable to inflammation and tumors. 

The kidneys are situated at the back part of 
the abdominal cavity on either side of the spinal 
column. The upper portion of the kidneys ex¬ 
tends as high as the union of the last rib but 
one — the eleventh — with the spinal column. 
The kidneys may become inflamed, or gravel 
may form in them if hard water is used inter¬ 
nally. 

The peritoneum is the lining membrane of the 
abdominal cavity. It also covers each organ 
within the abdomen separately, and binds them 


CAUSE OF DISEASE. 


19 


all down to the posterior wall of the abdomen, or 
to the diaphragm above. That portion of the 
peritoneum which collects the intestines into a 
convoluted mass is called the mesentery. There 
is a large double fold of the peritoneum that 
passes down like an apron in front of the in¬ 
testines. This is called the omentum. 

Within the mesentery there are certain glands 
called the mesenteric glands, whose function it 
is to assist in transforming the food into blood, 
the food being conveyed to them by the lacteal 
vessels, by which it is absorbed. 

The peritoneum secretes a watery fluid to 
moisten the organs it enshrouds, and to keep 
them lubricated. When this membrane is in¬ 
flamed, dropsy of the abdomen is liable to follow. 
When the mesentery or its glands are inflamed, 
the work of nutrition is imperfect. Tumors may 
form in the mesentery. Puerperal or childbed 
fever is a fever resulting from inflammation of 
the peritoneum. 

The fourth cavity is called the pelvis. It is 
formed by the pelvic bones, and contains the blad¬ 
der and rectum in males, and, in addition to these, 
the uterus, fallopian tubes, and ovaries, in females. 
These organs are liable to inflammation and dis- 
placements, which will be treated of hereafter. 

CAUSES OF DISEASE. 

There are two ways in which disease may be 
occasioned:—■ 

First, by the introduction of improper sub¬ 
stances, commonly known as poisons. 

Secondly, by the misrelation or improper use 
of good things, or hygienic agents. 


Of the poisons that may enter the system from 
without and thus become a cause of disease, the 
following are among those best known :— 

Of inorganic poisons, alkalies, acids, salts, ox¬ 
ides, earths, metals, alcohol, and all other distilled 
and fermented liquors, poisonous gases, and ma¬ 
larious exhalations. The organic poisons may be 
of either vegetable or animal origin. Of the 
vegetable poisons, some of the most common are 
opium, tobacco, aconite, ipecac, eoichicum, qui¬ 
nine, etc. 

Of the animal poisons, we may mention the 
venoms, viruses, infections, cantharides—Spanish 
flies—castor, musk, etc. All the drugs and medi¬ 
cines of the entire materia medica of all the sys¬ 
tems of medicine belong to one or the other of 
these classes of poisons. Whenever a person is 
called to treat the sick, he should, if possible, as¬ 
certain whether the disease was caused by the 
reception of some poison from without, and 
whether that poison is still entering the system ; 
for it is evident that the most successful way to 
stop an effort of the system to cast out a poison 
would be to prevent any more of that poison 
from entering the system; then, when what had 
already entered was cast out, the action, or dis¬ 
ease, would cease. This shows how it is that 
diseases are naturally self-limited. 

The improper use, or misrelation, or abuse, of 
hygienic agents, may become a cause of disease 
by so changing the conditions of the individual 
that the impurities, or wastes of the body, or 
broken-down tissues, are retained in the svstem 
until it is clogged therewith, and a diseased 
action is set up for the purpose of expelling 
them. 


GENERAL RULES FOR TREATMENT. 


21 


A disease of tliis kind may be caused by in- 
suliiciency of air, by defective light, by living in 
constant shade, by extremes of temperature, by 
the inordinate use or misapplication of water, by 
food taken in improper quantities and at im¬ 
proper times, by too little or too much clothing, 
or clothing improperly adjusted, or by overexer¬ 
cise, indolence, sleeplessness, depressing mental 
influences, mental shocks, morbid religious senti- 
ments, perverted moral influences, and mechan¬ 
ical injuries. If the misrelation of any of these 
otherwise hygienic agents is the cause of a dis- 
exse, it is evident that,.before the patient can re¬ 
cover, that cause must be removed by properly 
relating all hygienic agents to the system. 

GENERAL RULE 3 FOR NURSING THE SICK. 

1. Begin in season. Do not let a sick person 
work, or go uncared for until he is compelled to 
take to his bed, before beginning to care for him. 

2. As soon as a person begins to feel unwell, 
ascertain, if possible, what the cause is and re¬ 
move it. This may be all that is required. 

3. In most cases of acute disease, at the very 
first appearance of the disease, a tepid or warm 
bath will be beneficial by unclogging the skin 
and causing a slight determination of blood to 
the surface, thereby relieving any congestion of 
the internal organs. A tepid enema will usu- 
ally afford relief by removing obstructions 
from the bowels; and a warm water emetic will 
relieve the stomach of any unusable matters it 
may contain, thereby removing nausea. Fasting 
for one or two meals will do more to promote 
depuration than anything taken internally (a l 


TREATMENT OF DISEASE. 


2*2 

do; and the rest and quiet thus obtained will 
often be all that the patient needs. 

4. Preternatural heat can be reduced by ap¬ 
plying either cold, cool, or tepid water, or wet 
cloths; and warmth can be induced by hot cloths, 
hot bricks, or by bottles or jugs of hot water, etc. 

5. Always enjoin perfect quiet in the sick 
chamber, and let the patient sleep all he will. 

6. Never allow any but the nurse to see or 
converse with patients who are very low. Many 
have been sacrificed by not observing this rule. 

7. Never urge a fever patient to eat. 

8. Keep the sick room well ventilated, day 
and night, but do not allow a current of air to 
strike the patient. 

9. Never whisper within the hearing of the 
sick, for if you do, they will be very apt to think 
that you are talking about them, and will become 
anxious. 

10. Never indulge in sad or melancholy conver¬ 
sation with, or in the presence of, the sick. Al¬ 
ways appear cheerful yourself, and endeavor to 
keep them cheerful. 

11. Never allow any faecal or urinary mattei, 
nor any other foul substance, to remain in the 
room with the sick for a moment. 

12. Change or air the patient’s clothes and bed¬ 
ding, daily. 

13. Always keep the bowels free, the feet 
warm, the head cool, and the entire surface of the 
body as near the temperature of healthy persons 
as possible. 

14. As soon as they are able to walk about, pa¬ 
tients should be encouraged to take exercise in 
the open air. 

15. Always see that the patient’s limbs are clad 


DIET FOli THE SICK. 


23 


as warmly as the body, that the shoes are loose, 
that the garments are loose about the waist, and 
that corsets, stays, chignons, and all other in¬ 
jurious fashionable appendages are laid aside. 

16. Never give very cold nor prolonged treat¬ 
ment to very weak or nervous patients. 

DIET FOE THE SICK. 

Food for the sick should be nutritious, easy of 
digestion, and free from oily or fatty substances. 
The following articles should be religiously ab¬ 
stained from : pork, fats, butter, salted or smoked 
meats, and in many cases, all kinds of meats, salt 
fish, and most kinds of fresh fish, lobsters, clams, 
and oysters, rich gravies, and greasy soups, mus¬ 
tard, pepper, spices of all kinds, vinegar, pickles, 
raw vegetables of all kinds, cheese, rich pastry 
and puddings, oily nuts, tea, coffee, condiments of 
every kind, rich preserves, hard boiled eggs, fried 
eggs, and fried food of all kinds, distilled and fer¬ 
mented liquors of every kind, and whatever else 
impairs or injures digestion. 

If the patient is suffering with severe acute 
disease, he should take very little food, and that 
should be prepared in as plain and simple a man¬ 
ner as possible. This class of patients should 
subsist upon gruel made from some kind of meal; 
such as wheat, oat, corn, or barley meal. It may 
be given without milk, or with the addition of 
one-third milk. Milk toast, dry toast, boiled rice, 
wheat-meal and oat-meal mush, ripe fruit, either 
cooked or uncooked, baked apples, etc., are all good 
food for the sick; but they should be taken in 
small quantities by those who are suffering with 
febrile diseases. 


2t TREATMENT OF DISEASE. 

As a general rule, chronic invalids will find it 
far better for their health to partake of food but 
twice in the twenty-four hours than to eat often- 
er. They should breakfast at from seven to half- 
past eight, A. M., and dine at from half-past one 
to three, P. M. Not more than three or four va¬ 
rieties of food should be eaten at one meal, and 
these should generally be preparations of some 
kind of grain, fruit, or vegetable. Fresh meat, 
such as beef, mutton, venison, etc., may be used 
occasionally in small quantities. Milk and cream 
may be sparingly used in cooking. Concentrated 
foods should not be used. They will not prop¬ 
erly sustain life. Unbolted wheat-meal or oat¬ 
meal bread, mush, and cracked wheat, corn-meal 
bread, mush, and gruel, boiled rice, pearl barley, 
potatoes, apples, baked, raw or stewed, are all 
staple articles, and may be used freely; while 
green corn, hulled corn, parched corn, green and 
ripe peas and beans, and many other fruits, grains, 
and vegetables, may be frequently used. 

There are, however, some forms of dyspepsia 
in which the unbolted wheat meal, corn meal, 
cracked wheat, and oaten grits, will prove very 
irritating, and cannot be used. This is the case 
in ulcerated conditions of the duodenum and rec¬ 
tum. Sometimes the liver, when in a diseased 
condition, excretes an acrid, corroding bile which 
corrodes the duodenum, or upper portion of the 
small intestine, causing ulceration of its mucous 
membrane. Then, again, the rectum sometimes 
becomes ulcerated, the ulcers being caused by 
piles. In either of these cases, unbolted wheat 
meal, cracked wheat, and other coarse articles of 
diet, will be very apt to irritate the ulcerated sur- 


DIET FOR THE SICK. 


25 


face and thereby increase the pain and also the 
purulent discharges. 

Local quiet is very essential to the healing of 
the ulcerated surface of the intestines, there¬ 
fore the diet, in these cases, should consist of 
a very small amount of farinaceous food with 
mealy potatoes, baked apples, grapes, and most 
kinds of subacid fruits. Arrowroot, tapioca, etc., 
may be used. Those who are dyspeptic should 
be careful to avoid all those articles of food which 
th'ey have found to be injurious to them. They 
must not overeat, and should not usually eat 
both fruits and vegetables at the same meal. If 
their cases are very bad, they should use mostly 
dry food, such as dry toast, graham crackers, and 
parched corn, all of which should be thoroughly 
masticated. 

Patients who are recovering from a severe 
acute disease usually have voracious appetites. 
Such persons will have to be extremely careful 
not to overeat, and not to indulge their appetites 
by using hurtful substances. Thousands sacrifice 
their lives yearly by not properly restraining 
their appetites while they are weak and unable 
to use much food. 

Persons who have been accustomed to the so- 
called good things of this life will, without doubt, 
find it to be quite a trial to restrict themselves to 
a strictly hygienic diet; yet if they can become 
accustomed to such a diet, they will be amply 
rewarded in the end by improved health and 
strength. It is true, however, that many who 
have abjured drugs, and who have discontinued 
the use of flesh-meat, tea, coffee, etc., find them¬ 
selves weaker than before making this change in 


2G 


TREATMENT OF DISEASE. 


their diet. I have known several such persons, 
and they have brought their experience forward 
as proof of the unsoundness of the vegetarian 
theory. But in every case, when inquiry was 
made, it was found that mistakes had been made. 
In some cases, they had suddenly discontinued 
the use of articles that were stimulating, and re¬ 
stricted themselves to a meager diet; in other 
cases, they did not cook the food so as to make 
it relish; in still other cases, they substituted 
large quantities of sugar and cream or butter in 
place of the meat they formerly used. Such 
practice is all wrong. Break off from the use of 
meat gradually, and supply its place with good 
hygienic food, well cooked, and in good variety. 
Never overwork when making these changes, 

O O' 

but graduate the work to the strength. Be sure 
to secure good unleavened bread. 

THE DIAGNOSIS OF DISEASE. 

To write out a set of rules by which every 
man and woman can determine at sight the 
nature of every disease to which flesh is heir, is 
a task that has never yet been accomplished. It 
is not to be expected that such a set of rules can 
be given, yet there are a few general principles 
that may be stated in such a manner that per¬ 
sons of average intelligence can read many of 
the diseases with which human beings are af¬ 
flicted, in a manner to know just what ails the 
patient. 

It is by the aggregate and succession of symp¬ 
toms that a disease is detected, a symptom being 
any perceptible change that takes place in any 
organ or function. 


RULES FOR DETERMINING DISEASE. 2 t 

It is the plan of this work, not only to give 
directions for treating disease, but also to give a 
description of the symptoms manifested in the 
various diseases and by which the location and 
nature of each may be known. This will be 
done by treating of each disease separately; yet, 
since there are certain general rules for determin¬ 
ing disease, it may be well to give these first. 


GENERAL RULES FOR DETERMINING DISEASE. 

1. When the body is in health, there is a con¬ 
stant occurrence of certain well-known vital 

manifestations which are called the language of 

© © 

health. 

2. When the body is diseased, some or all of 
the vital functions are disturbed; consequently, 
the vital manifestations are disturbed, i. e., they 
differ from those which occur in health. These 
disturbed vital manifestations are the language 
of disease, and are called symptoms. 

3. It is by noticing that the vital manifesta¬ 
tions differ from those that occur in health that 
we discover that the body or any portion there¬ 
of is diseased. 

LANGUAGE OF HEALTH. 

When the entire body is in health, there is a 
uniform temperature of all its parts. There is 
neither chilliness nor sensation of heat, but an 
unvarying temperature at about 98°. The skin 
is soft, velvety, and clear. The appetite is not 
capricious, but relishes plain, wholesome food 




28 


TREATMENT OF DISEASE. 


without requiring that it should he seasoned 
with condiments. With the regularity of clock¬ 
work, it demands a moderate supply of food. 
The stomach digests the food so easily and so 
perfectly that after the food is once swallowed, 
the individual never thinks or knows anything 
more concerning it. 

The bowels move with regularity and are nei¬ 
ther too tight nor too loose. There is no rum¬ 
bling to be heard in them nor motion felt, except 
in the act of defecation. The kidneys excrete the 
urine, which is retained in the bladder without 
the individual becoming conscious of it until by 
distention it presses on other organs or stretches 
its nerves, when cognizance is taken of its condi¬ 
tion, and its contents are readily voided by pain¬ 
less micturition. 

The circulation is regular, the blood being car¬ 
ried in an even and steady current to all parts of 
the body. The breathing is full and free and 
noiseless, the breath is sweet, and the mouth 
moist and clean. The vital organs all perform 
their functions in such an easy and perfect man¬ 
ner that the individual would never know by 
the sense of feeling that he had vital organs. 
The body is so perfectly maintained that from 
infancy to adult life it does not cease to grow, 
and after attaining to adult life it neither in¬ 
creases nor diminishes much in size or weight 
until it reaches old age. The sleep is undis¬ 
turbed and refreshing. The senses are all acute, 
the mind is clear, tranquil, hopeful, and cheerful. 
The voluntary organs all act promptly to the 
dictation of the will, all the bodily sensations 
are pleasurable, and there is a love for exercise. 
Such is the language of health. 

O C") 


HULKS FOR DETERMINING DISEASE. 


29 


LANGUAGE OF DISEASE. 

When the body is diseased, there will be a dis¬ 
turbance of some or all of the vital manifesta¬ 
tions, and to determine the nature and severity 
of the disease, we must carefully watch the vital 
manifestations, and note wherein they differ from 
those which take place in health. 

The following manifestations are the language 
of disease, and some of them always occur when 
the body is diseased. The temperature of the 
body may be disturbed by being too high or too 
low, occasioning chilly sensations, or burning 
fever. The skin may be dry and husky, and 
may even crack or scale, or it may lack clearness, 
being clogged with impurities. The appetite 
may be craving/ or there may be lossbf appetite. 
It may be capricious, and relish only highly-sea¬ 
soned food, or it may call for stimulating food 
and drink. The stomach may act in a disturbed 
manner; there may be either cramping, heart¬ 
burn, nausea, vomiting, eructations, heat, or pain. 

The bowels may be irregular, being either con¬ 
stipated or loose, with either bilious, watery, 
bloody, or slimy discharges, or wind may accu¬ 
mulate in them. 

The kidneys may excrete a thick, stringy sub¬ 
stance with the urine, or they may fail to excrete 
a proper amount of urine, or they may excrete 
too great an amount. The bladder may refuse to 
retain but a small amount of urine, which may 
be voided with great difficulty and pain, the 
urine being hot; or there may be failure to re¬ 
tain the urine, or there may be an undue reten¬ 
tion of it, causing great pain. 


30 


TREATMENT OF DISEASE. 


The circulation may be disturbed, as indicated 
by the pulse, which may be too high or too low, 
too fast or too slow, too strong or too weak; it 
may be full, or wiry, or too frequent, or irregular. 
The breathing may be oppressed, or the breath 
may be short, or it may have an offensive smell. 
There may be mucous or slimy discharges from 
the throat or lungs; the mouth may taste bad, 
or may be dry, or the tongue may be coated. 
There may be wasting of the body, or an abnor¬ 
mal filling up with fat. Some of the senses 
may be faulty, or the mind may manifest unusual 
activity, or stupidity, or insanity, or despondency. 
There may be involuntary contractions of the 
muscles, amounting to cramp, spasms, or even 
convulsions. The bodily sensations may be un¬ 
pleasant, and even painful. The sleep may be 
disturbed and unrefresh in g, the individual being 
restless or nervous. There may be a feeling of 
listlessness, and an antipathy against taking exer¬ 
cise. Such manifestations as the foregoiiig indi- 
cate that disease exists, hence they are the lan¬ 
guage of disease. 

HOW TO LOCATE A DISEASE. 

As has been previously shown, disease is ab¬ 
normal vital action—an unusual or disturbed 
action of some or all of the organs—therefore, to 
determine the location of a disease, all we have 
to do is to apply the general rules before-men¬ 
tioned to the various organs, and ascertain what 
organ or organs are acting abnormally, then we 
can tell where the disease is located; for the ab¬ 
normal action is the disease. We must not close 
our investigation, however, as soon as we find 


RULES FOR DETERMINING DISEASE. 


31 


that a certain organ is diseased; we must con¬ 
tinue the investigation until we have compared 
the present vital manifestations of each organ 
with those that are known to proceed from that 
organ when it is in health; then, taking the ag¬ 
gregate of all these abnormal or unusual actions, 
we can tell just what organs are diseased. 

THE NAMES OF DISEASES. 

Any deviation from the healthy standard, 
either of vital action or of organic structure, is 
disease. Now, as the number of these deviations 
(in other words, the whole number of diseases), 
if we include all their differences in kind and 
degree, is scarcely calculable, it follows that any 
attempt to enumerate, name, and describe, each 
separately would be an endless task, for it is sel¬ 
dom that any two individuals ever manifest ex¬ 
actly the same symptoms, or are diseased just 
alike; therefore, we shall group them together 
and present them in some order. Many persons 
have read in their water-cure manuals a descrip¬ 
tion of a disease and its treatment, yet when 
they come to the bedside they perhaps find that 
the symptoms manifested by the patient vary 
somewhat from those laid down in the book, and 
they are at a loss to know with what disease the 
patient is suffering. They think that if they 
only knew the name of the disease they would 
know what to do, but they do not know how to 
find out with what disease the patient is troubled. 

It is to be hoped that whoever reads these 
pages will not be satisfied with learning the names 
of various diseases, but that they will endeavor 
to learn the conditions of body that are signified 


32 


TREATMENT OF DISEASE. 


by these names, and then, by reflecting upon 
the deviation of those conditions from those 
which occur in health, try to understand what 
condition should be supplied, or what hygienic 
agent applied, or what bad habit corrected—in 
other words, what principles of treatment should 
be adopted to restore the patient to health. If 
we understand the exact conditions of the various 
organs of the body when in disease, it does not 
matter whether we know the name of the dis¬ 
ease or not, nor whether the disease has a name, 
for the name of a disease is only intended to ex¬ 
press certain conditions or actions. 

CLASSIFICATION OF DISEASES. 

Probably the most convenient classification of 
diseases for the general reader will be as fol¬ 
lows :— 

General Diseases, and 
Local Diseases; 

Acute Diseases, and 
Chronic Diseases. 

A general disease is one which is not confined 
to any special locality of the body, but is one in 
which more or less^ of the entire system is in¬ 
volved. 

A local disease is one which is confined to some 
special organ or system of organs. 

An acute disease is one which, with a certain 
degree of severity, has a rapid progress and short 
duration. 

A chronic disease is one whose progress is slow 
and whose duration is long. 

Diseases which are^intermediate between acute 
and chronic are sometimes called subacute. 


AXA3MIA. 


o •> 


GENERAL DISEASES. 

There are many diseases that affect the general 
system, but as this work is intended simply as a 
hand-book for home practice, and not as a com¬ 
plete text-book for the medical practitioner, there¬ 
fore those diseases only will be introduced that 
can be treated at home with some degree of sue- 
cess. 

MORBID CONDITIONS OR THE BLOOD. 

The blood is the vital fluid from which all the 
tissues are built, and it is evident that, for the tis¬ 
sues to be properly maintained, the blood must 
be of the proper quality and proper quantity. 
This is not alwavs the case however, for it fre- 
quently happens that there are individuals who 
have too much blood, others who have too little 
or whose blood is thin and watery, while others 
are subject to excessive hemorrhages, and still 
others who have other abnormal conditions of 
blood; but as such of the last as can be success¬ 
fully treated at home will be mentioned in con¬ 
nection with other diseases, they will not be no¬ 
ticed here. The first morbid state of the blood 
that we will notice is that known as 

ANEMIA. 

This term signifies poverty of the blood, or a 
condition in which the blood is thin and watery. 
If the blood of an ansemic patient be examined, 
it will be found deficient in red blood corpuscles. 
Instead of these existing in the proportion of 130 


34 


TREATMENT OF DISEASE. 


per 1000 parts as in health, they are reduced to 
80 or even 60, and in severe cases even to 30. 
The red blood corpuscles are the ones that convey 
oxygen from the lungs to the various tissues, and 
convey the carbonic acid from the tissues to the 
lungs for expulsion. Hence, it is highly impor¬ 
tant that there should be a normal supply of these. 
This disease is not confined to age or sex. It is 
met with where the digestive functions are im¬ 
perfectly performed and in connection with many 
other serious chronic diseases. 

Symptoms. —There is a pale and waxy or sal¬ 
low hue of the countenance, and of the skin gen¬ 
erally ; the lips, also the tongue and the inside of 
the mouth, are nearly colorless. The pulse is fre¬ 
quent, small, and quick, sometimes very quick. 
There is much pain in the top of the head and 
frequently in the front portions. Mental depres¬ 
sion is generally a prominent symptom. Moder¬ 
ate mental excitement or bodily exertion is at¬ 
tended by a sense of sinking, or faintness. There 
is palpitation, with hurried breathing. Moderate 
exercise will increase the frequency of the pulse 
in some cases to double the beats per minute. 
The patient feels a lack of breath ; this is because 
there are so few red blood corpuscles to absorb 
the oxygen and convey it to the tissues. Anaemia 
is also frequently attended with severe hemor¬ 
rhage. When anaemia is of long continuance, a 
general wasting of the tissues sets in, also dropsy, 
difficult breathing, diarrhea, and profuse sweat¬ 
ing, and then death soon follows, either by grad¬ 
ual exhaustion, or more suddenly by syncope, 
convulsion, or coma. 

Cause.— In most cases, this impoverished con¬ 
dition of the blood is brought about by improper 


ANvEMIA. 


35 


habits of life, such as improper food, breathing 
impure air in close, unventilated rooms, want of 
sunlight, insufficient clothing or clothing improp¬ 
erly adjusted, the wearing of tight garments about 
the waist, and by lack of exercise. Excessive 
hemorrhage is also a frequent cause of this dis¬ 
ease. It is also occasioned by taking drugs, such 
as antimony, mercury, or active purgatives. 

Treatment.— The first thing to be done is to 
ascertain, if possible, the cause, and remove it, 
then attend well to the diet. The food should be 
nutritious and should be composed of fruits, 
grains, and vegetables. See Diet for the Sick. 

The clothing should be so adjusted that the 
limbs will be as warmly clad as any part of the 
body. Every garment should be suspended from 
the shoulders and should be loose about the waist. 
Exercise in the open air should be taken each 
day, always stopping short of fatigue. Walking 
is the best exercise. An effort should be made 
to increase the amount of exercise day by day 
until the patient is able to walk five or six miles 
each day without fatigue. In addition to the 
foregoing, the patient should take a tonic bath 
two or three times a week. The dripping-sheet 
at 85° or 95° is as good as any, or, if convenient, 
the spray at 95°, or the pail-douche at 85° or 95 u 
These baths will tone up and strengthen the sys¬ 
tem. If the patient has cold feet, they should be 
bathed with cold water for two minutes at a time, 
then wiped thoroughly dry, and rubbed with 
the dry hand until perfectly warmed. A dry- 
hand-rub every morning on or before rising will 
be found very beneficial. This is a chronic dis¬ 
ease, and it will require both time and persever¬ 
ance to work a cure. 


3G TREATMENT OF DISEASE. 

CHLOROSIS. 

This term is applied to a disease that is some¬ 
times called green sickness, a disease which fre¬ 
quently affects young women about the age of 
puberty, or soon after. There seems to be much 
confusion concerning the nature of this disease, 
many attributing it to disordered menstrual and 
sexual functions, as in most chlorotic women the 
menses have never occurred, or, if they have oc¬ 
curred, they have either been suppressed, or they 
are scanty, irregular, and pale. There can be no 
doubt that suppression is the result of chlorosis 
and not the cause of it. 

In chlorosis, the blood is impoverished and is in 
the same condition as described in Anaemia, the 
two diseases being the same. The reason that 
the menses do not occur at the age of puberty 
in chlorotic women is, their blood is so depleted 
that they have not sufficient life to provide 
for their individual maintenance, and at the same 
time make provision for offspring, which is the 
object of menstruation. The reason why so many 
are affected with anaemia or chlorosis at about 
or soon after the age of puberty is, at that age 
they, in some instances, overtax the mind by ex¬ 
cessive study; in other cases, it is because the 
body is developing faster then than at any other 
age, and is more easily affected by overwork or 
excitement of any kind, and any sudden change 
affects the constitution seriously. 

Treatment. —The same in all respects as for 
ansemia. 


PLETHORA. 


37 


PLETHORA, HYPEREMIA. 

These terms signify a superabundance of blood. 
Some authors speak of local hypersemia as exist¬ 
ing whenever some one or more organs contain 
too much blood, other organs at the same time 
containing too little. The fullness in these cases 
is simple congestion, and will be noticed under 
that head. 

Symptoms. —When general plethora exists, 
there is an excess of blood in all parts. The face 
appears full or swollen, and has a purplish tinge. 

The eyes appear rather small, the pulse is large, 
somewhat hard, and resistent. The veins are swol¬ 
len, and in some cases the individual becomes 
quite fat; but this is not always the case, and 
besides this, many fleshy persons suffer from a 
deficiency rather than from an excess of blood. 
Plethora occasions lassitude and indolence ^de¬ 
sire for sleep, which is often accompanied with 
snoring and dreaming; a liability to vertigo and 
headache, and sometimes hemorrhage, especially 
from the nose, and from piles or hemorrhoids if 
they exist. 

In plethora, the blood may be healthy and 
pure, but there is too much of it, and there is 
danger that some of the capillaries may be rupt¬ 
ured, which might result in serious consequences 
if the blood pass into the tissues of the brain or 
some other vital organ. 

Cause.— The most frequent cause of plethora 
is too free living and too little exercise. A per¬ 
son with strong and large digestive organs is lia¬ 
ble to overeat. If such a person takes more 
nourishment than he requires, there will be more 
blood made than can be used. If he takes too 


38 


TREATMENT OF DISEASE. 


little exercise, or is of sedentary habits, his tis¬ 
sues will not change as fast as they should, hence, 
from these two causes, there will be an excess of 
blood. 

Treatment. —The treatment of this disease is 
indicated by its cause. Active out-door exercise 
is of the utmost importance. Care should be 
taken at first not to heat the system. Begin by 
taking gentle exercise of any kind, and increase 
gradually, always carrying it as far as possible 
without fatigue ; for it is important that a change 
of tissue should take place, and this can be acceler¬ 
ated by exercise. A spare diet is as essential as 
exercise. The food must be plain, and should be 
taken in as small quantities as the actual de¬ 
mands of nutrition will allow. A dripping-sheet 
at 75° or 85°, or a sponge-bath at 75°, followed 
by a dry-sheet rub, should be taken once a day 
for a few days, then skip a day and take the bath 
every alternate day thereafter for a few weeks, 
unless it be found that they weaken the patient. 

HEMORRHAGE. 

The escape of blood from the vessels in which 
it is naturally contained constitutes hemorrhage. 
Hemorrhage may be caused by cutting, or other¬ 
wise wounding, the arteries and veins. Such 
bleeding, if the vessels cut are quite small, will 
generally stop spontaneously; if it does not, 
bind the part. If an artery of some considera¬ 
ble size is cut (it may be known by the size 
of the stream and by the bright-red color of the 
blood), it should be tied. To prevent loss of blood 
while waiting the arrival of a surgeon, tie a 
handkerchief, or a strong bandage, about the 


HEMORRHAGE. 


39 


wounded limb between the wound and the heart; 
tie sufficiently tight to stop the bleeding. If the 
wound is on the body, fold the artery and make 
pressure at some point between the wound and 
the heart until it can be tied. If the blood flows 
in a steady stream, without jerking, and is of a 
dark-red color, it is simply venous blood, and the 
hemorrhage can be stopped by binding on lint. 

Another form of hemorrhage is that occasioned 
by some constitutional difficulty. It may result 
from tubercle, or cancer, as these occasion decay 
of the tissues and coats of vessels; or it may be 
occasioned by excessive congestions, or inflamma¬ 
tions in which some of the smaller vessels are 
ruptured; or it may be caused by anaemia (poor 
blood), in which condition the tissues are all 
poorly maintained. This is especially the case 
with the coats of the capillary vessels, and they 
give way very easily. 

For these reasons, hemorrhage frequently oc¬ 
curs in persons with the above conditions. Hem¬ 
orrhage is not confined to any particular part of 
the body, but may occur from any organ or tis¬ 
sue. 

Cause.— The immediate causes of hemorrhage 
in most cases are heat, violent mental excitement 
or muscular exertion, the use of stimulants, ex¬ 
posure to various irritants, excess of blood, and 
poor blood. Sometimes there is a hereditary 
weakness of the coats of the vessels, in which 
case a very trifling cause will induce bleeding. 

Prognosis. —If the blood flows into the sub¬ 
stance of any of the vital organs or into the cav¬ 
ity of any of the membranes that surround the 
vital organs, or if it occurs repeatedly in a person 
whose blood is thin, or whose blood-vessels are 


40 


TREATMENT OF DISEASE. 


weak, there is very little probability of entirely 
overcoming the difficulty, even if death does not 
soon result. In other instances, death is very 
rarely the result. 

General Treatment. —We should seek to ex¬ 
cite contraction of the bleeding vessels and to 
balance the circulation by inducing a more copi¬ 
ous circulation in organs or parts of the body re¬ 
mote from the bleeding part. The application 
of ice or cold water to the bleeding parts, or as 
near them as possible, will contract the vessels, 
and the application of warmth to parts remote 
therefrom will promote an increase of blood in 
those parts. A free current of air applied to the 
bleeding vessel will often cause the blood to co¬ 
agulate in the part. As soon as the coagulum is 
formed in the vessel, the bleeding will cease. In 
endeavoring to control any form of hemorrhage, 
the patient should be kept as quiet as possible. 
His room should be kept cool and well aired. 
He should rest on a mattress without much cov¬ 
ering, and subsist on simple, yet nourishing, food, 
and should drink freely of cold water or ice wa¬ 
ter, while the position of the body should be such 
that the flow of blood toward the bleeding part 
will be impeded. The after treatment should be 
such as will build up the constitution. Copious 
hot enemas are very useful in stopping hemor¬ 
rhage from any organ. 

BLEEDING AT THE NOSE-EPISTAXIS. 

This should not cause alarm unless the patient 
is known to have thin, watery blood (see under 
head of Anaemia), or unless it occurs in advanced 
life, or comes on during the progress of some dis- 


BLEEDING FROM THE LUNGS. 


41 


case. But if it comes on in advanced life, it 
should cause alarm, unless the person has a ten¬ 
dency to apoplexy, in which case it may do no 
harm. 

Treatment. —Apply cold water or ice to the 
bleeding part and to the back of the neck ; keep 
the head exposed to cold air. Elevating the 
arms will frequently stop nose bleeding. An¬ 
other good way is to press on the facial arteries. 
These may be found by moving the finger along 
the under side of the lower jaw from the chin 
backward, until a notch is felt about three- 
fourths of an inch forward of the angle of the 

• • • O 

jaw; at this point, the facial artery, which sup¬ 
plies the nose with blood, passes over the jaw¬ 
bone. By pressing firmly on the artery on both 
sides of the face, the blood is prevented from 
reaching the nose, consequently, the bleeding 
must cease. There are, however, occasional cases 
in which these arteries connect with arteries 
within the head after entering the nose ; in such 
cases, pressure on the facial arteries will be use¬ 
less; in all other cases it will be successful. 
When other means fail, the hot foot-bath should 
be resorted to, also plugging the nostril, being 
careful to insert the ping back of the bleeding 
vessel, otherwise, the blood would run into the 
mouth and throat. 

BLEEDING FROM THE LUNGS—HAEM¬ 
OPTYSIS. 

When bleeding occurs in the lungs or bron¬ 
chial tubes, the blood is generally raised by cough¬ 
ing. It is generally frothy and of a bright-red 

Treat. Dis. M 


42 


TREATMENT OF DISEASE. 


hue. The quantity expelled may vary from a 
simple streak mingled with mucus or a minute 
clot or two, to one or more pints. The hemor¬ 
rhage very rarely proves fatal at once, though it 
hastens death if much blood is lost. 

Treatment.— The hemorrhage should be 
checked as speedily as possible. The patient 
should be put to bed with the head and shoul¬ 
ders elevated, and should keep perfectly quiet; 
he should not be excited, but should dismiss all 
fear, for mental excitement will increase and pro¬ 
long the bleeding. He should swallow sips of 
cold water, ice water, and occasionally bits of ice, 
and a cold compress should be kept over his 
chest, a hot fomentation should be applied to the 
spine at the same time. The limbs and feet 
must be kept warm. If there is congestion of 
the lungs, a hot foot-bath should be given, or the 
patient should bo enveloped in a very thick 
woolen blanket, wrung out of hot water and ap¬ 
plied as hot as he can possibly bear it. The ex¬ 
tremities must be kept warm. A sitz-batli at 
from 98° to 105°, or a hot leg-bath at the same 
temperature, will frequently check the hemor¬ 
rhage without any other treatment. 

BLEEDING PEOM THE STOMACH—IIJEM- 

ATEMESIS. 

When this occurs, the blood is usually vomited 
in large quantities; it is not frothy, as it is when 
it comes from the lungs; it is frequently mixed 
with food. Inexperienced persons often lind 
great difficulty in determining between bleeding 
from the lungs and air passages of the throat, 
and bleeding from the stomach and meat-pipe. 


BLEEDING FROM THE KIDNEYS. 


43 


To enable the reader to distinguish between 
them, we subjoin the following table of symptoms 
of each :— 


SYMPTOMS OF 

BLEEDING FROM THE LUNGS. 

Difficult breathing. 

Pain or heat in chest. 

Blood coughed up in mouth¬ 
fuls. 

Blood frothy. 

Blood bright-red color. 

Blood mingled with mucus. 


SYMPTOMS OF 

BLEEDING FBOJI THE STOMACH. 
Nausea. 

Weight, pressure, and uneas¬ 
iness, in region of the stom¬ 
ach. 

Blood vomited profusely. 

Blood not frothy. 

Blood dark-red color. 

Blood mingled with food. 


Treatment. —The treatment for bleeding at 
the stomach should be in all respects as that for 
bleeding at the lungs, except that solid food 
should be abstained from. In both of these dis¬ 
eases it is important to attend well to the gen¬ 
eral health. See Constitutional Treatment. 


BLEEDING FROM THE KIDNEYS AND 
URINARY PASSAGES—H2EMATURIA. 

This may arise from the presence of stone in 
the bladder or kidneys, or in the tubes that con¬ 
vey the urine from the kidneys to the bladder, 
or it may be caused by inflammation of the blad¬ 
der or kidneys. 

Treatment.— If inflammation exists, it must be 
reduced. See Inflammation of Urinary Organs. 
Cold or cool sitz-baths and injections are the lo¬ 
cal appliances. The general health should be 
well attended to. 



44 


TREATMENT OF DISEASE. 


BLEEDING FEOM THE RECTUM. 

This is usually caused by inflammation of the 
mucous membrane of the rectum, or the large in¬ 
testine, or from hemorrhoids or blind piles. 

Treatment.— Take cool sitz-baths for five or 
eight minutes at 75°, followed by brisk hand 
rubbing, or the hot sitz-bath, followed by cold. 
Ice may be introduced into the rectum with ad¬ 
vantage if the bleeding surface is low down, or 
cold injections may be taken once a day, or a hot 
enema once a day with water at 105° Fahrenheit. 

UTERINE HEMORRHAGE. 

There are two kinds of uterine hemorrhage. 

• • ® 
The first that we notice is called menorrhagia. 

This is simply an increased flow of the menses. 
The second is called metrorrhagia. The last is 
bleeding, independent of the menses, and is the 
proper uterine hemorrhage. The diseases which 
give rise to this difficulty are cancer, polypus tu¬ 
mors, congestion, and. inflammation. 

Treatment.— If a polypus tumor exists, a sur¬ 
geon should be called, and the tumor removed. 
In other cases, ice or cold water applied, or a 
cold sitz-bath for a few minutes, or a hot sitz and 
foot-bath, or even the introduction of air to the 
bleeding parts, will usually be all that is required. 
The coldest water or ice, in a bladder or rubber 
bag, should be kept over the lower part of the 
abdomen, with heat to lower part of spine. If 
these appliances do not stop the bleeding, the 
vaginal canal should be packed with a sponge or 
soft napkin. If the bleeding is consequent upon 
childbirth, the plugging must not be resorted to. 


CONGESTION. 


45 


The hot foot-bath, and cold to the abdomen, and 
air to the bleeding vessels, and heat to the lower 
part of spine, are the appliances to be used. In 
the first variety give the warm foot-bath. 

CONGESTION. 

The term congestion denotes an abnormal ac¬ 
cumulation of blood in a part. It may or may 
not be accompanied with pain; it is not accom¬ 
panied with either heat or redness. 

Cause.— Anything that will occasion an un¬ 
balancing of the circulation may cause conges¬ 
tion. The vital organs may become congested 
by chilling the surface or extremities, or by 
wearing tight garments, or by the use of stimu¬ 
lating food. The brain may become congested 
by excessive mental labor, or anxiety, or by con¬ 
stipated bowels. In the last case, the overloaded 
bowel presses against the artery which carries 
blood to the lower extremities, and partially 
closes it, thus preventing the blood from flowing 
as freely through this artery as it otherwise 
would; the heart in the meantime does not 
slacken its action, consequently, at every beat it 
forces more blood to the brain than it would 
were the lower arteries unobstructed. 

Treatment.— There are three ways in which 
congestion may be treated, either of which, in 
some cases, may be successful. It will be best, 
however, in all serious cases, to combine the 
three modes. 

1. Remove the cause, whatever it may be. 

2. Apply cold to the part, which will contract 
the capillaries, and force the blood along, and 
prevent the reception of an oversupply. 


4G 


TREATMENT OF DISEASE. 


3. Apply warmth or heat to some other part 
of the surface or to the extremities, thereby in¬ 
ducing temporary congestion in them; this will 
relieve the previously congested organ. The 
heat should not be continued long at any one 
time. 


INFLAMMATIONS. 

Every part of the body is liable to inflamma¬ 
tion, and there are very few diseases in which 
there is not more or less inflammation in some 
part of the body. Hence, a knowledge of the 
nature of inflammation will serve as a key to the 
comprehension of the nature of a very large 
number of diseases. 

In very many diseases, inflammation of some 
part of the system is the immediate cause of the 
disease, consequently, in treating any disease in 
which inflammation is one of the conditions, we 
should seek to reduce the inflammation. 

Symptoms. —Inflammation is a disease which 
is characterized by pain, swelling, heat, and red¬ 
ness. Inflammation in different situations has 
points of difference relating to the structure af¬ 
fected, and it presents diverse modifications de¬ 
dependent on other circumstances than its seat. 
Nevertheless, there are features common to acute 
inflammation wherever seated, and under all cir¬ 
cumstances, sufficient to enable us to identify the 
disease. 

A part may be swollen by an accumulation of 
water or of air therein, as in dropsy and emphy¬ 
sema—wind dropsy—yet there may be neither 
pain, heat, nor redness. We must not confound 
these conditions with inflammation. Both may 


INFLAMMATIONS. 


47 


exist without there being any inflammation in 
the part. 

Neither must we confound inflammation with 
congestion. Although the last always precedes 
inflammation, it may exist independent of it. 
Congestion is simply the swelling of a part, 
caused by an accumulation of blood; and al¬ 
though pain may exist, there is neither heat nor 
redness. 

Whenever the circulation is disturbed from 
any cause, there must of necessity be, relatively, 
more blood in some parts of the body than in 
others. Some organs become congested with 
blood which is not passed on readily because of 
the relaxed condition of the capillary vessels. 

Whenever inflammation terminates by simple 
subsidence, it is said to terminate by resolution. 
In such a case, the congestion increases until 
some portion of the blood stagnates in some of 
the capillary vessels toward the center of the af¬ 
fected part. In a short time, preternatural heat 
is occasioned by the activity of the tissues to 
move the blood onward, and the part is then 
said to be inflamed. If the heat is not very 
great, nor continued for any considerable time, 
there will be no leakage of the blood nor of any 
of its constituent parts, nor any change in it. 
The inflammation begins to recede, the stagnant 
but still fluid blood is again set in motion, the 
rapidity of the circulation in the surrounding 
vessels diminishes, and the part returns in all re¬ 
spects to its former condition. This may be prop¬ 
erly called the spontaneous cure of inflammation, 
and to this event there seems to be always a 
natural tendency, which may be promoted by 
proper treatment. 


43 


TREATMENT OF DISEASE. 


Whenever the heat of inflammation is great or 
is long continued, other events than resolution 
will be liable to occur. The first we notice is the 
pouring out of the watery portion of the blood into 
the loose tissues. Sometimes some of the small 
vessels give way and hemorrhage into the part be¬ 
comes an event of inflammation. It is supposed 
that this occurs in a greater or less degree in 
most cases of inflammation. 

A third event of inflammation is the pouring 
out of the fibrine or coagulable lymph (that por¬ 
tion of the blood from which the tissues are built) 
into the loose tissues or upon the inflamed 
surface. When this lymph is poured out in cer¬ 
tain locations, the parts become thereby adhered. 
In some cases, organs have been united firmly to 
other organs or to the walls of the cavity in which 
they are contained. If the lymph is poured out 
of the vessels among the tissues, it glues them 
together, and the organ becomes hard, and is said 
to be indurated. 

A fourth event is the formation of pus, and is 
called suppuration. In this case, the lymph un¬ 
dergoes a change, occasioned by the excessive 
heat of the part or by a less degree of heat long 
applied. There are two kinds of pus; the first 
of which is called healthy, because it has not un¬ 
dergone decomposition. It consists of yellow 
globules diffused through a watery fluid, and is 
an opaque, smooth fluid of the consistence of 
cream, and has little or no smell. The second 
kind of pus is called ichorous. It is a thin 
watery, acrid pus, containing decomposed matter. 

A fifth event of inflammation is ulceration. 
This occurs when in the process of suppuration, 


INFLAMMATIONS. 


43 


some of the tissues become decomposed, and an 
open sore is produced. 

A sixth event of inflammation is gangrene, or 
the death of the part. 

RATIONALE OF INFLAMMATION. 

Inflammation, like all other diseases, is the effort 
of the vitalized tissues or organs to expel impu¬ 
rities or poisons from the system, or to protect 
it from injurious mechanical, chemical, or vital 
irritants. This is proved by the fact that when 
any foreign body or substance becomes so firmly 
imbedded in the flesh that it cannot be removed 
by absorption, the part becomes inflamed, and 
pus is thrown around it, and by thus forming an 
abscess it is prevented from coming in contact 
with the living tissues. Or, if a part of the body 
becomes dead, the living parts, if possessed of suf¬ 
ficient vitality, immediately separate the dead 
portion by throwing out pus between the living 
and the dead, and the dead portion soon sloughs 
away, and behind the pus which protects the liv¬ 
ing parts, granulations, or a new growth of flesh, 
take place, healing the part. 

VARIETIES OF INFLAMMATION. 

Inflammatory affections may be divided into 
several distinct kinds. That form which is defi¬ 
nitely limited, and which tends to suppuration, 
as in the case of boils and abscesses, is called 
phlegmonous. That kind which is attended with 
eruptions, rashes, and extensive ulcerations, is 
called erysipelatous. 

If the inflammation tends to produce a preter¬ 
natural membrane on any of the mucous surfaces, 


50 


TREATMENT OF DISEASE. 


as in croup or diptheria, it is called catarrhal or 
membranous inflammation. If the inflamma¬ 
tion is confined principally to the glands or to the 
serous membranes lining the cavities of the body, 
it is called scrofulous or strumous. When con¬ 
fined to the structures of the joints, it is called 
arthritic. 

Inflammation is also divided into acute, sub¬ 
acute, and chronic. The first is attended with 
general fever ; the second, with an occasional 
slight febrile paroxysm, while the third is not 
attended with any general disturbance. 

GENERAL TREATMENT OF INFLAMMA¬ 
TION. 

In treating inflammation, it is desirable to re¬ 
store the inflamed parts to their normal condition 
before any of the serious events previously men¬ 
tioned shall have occurred. To do this, care must 
be taken to remove the cause, whatever it may 
be. The diet must also be regulated, and all 
stimulating or irritating substances, also all con¬ 
centrated substances and condiments, must be 
withheld therefrom. Feed the patient on plain, 
nourishing food. 

If the external surface is the part inflamed, 
cold wet cloths should be applied without inter¬ 
ruption in the early stages, with a view to re¬ 
duce the inflammation before suppuration takes 
place. In this case, the cold cloths should be 
changed as often as they become warm. There 
may be cases in which cold will cause pain; in 
such cases, make a tepid application. In some 
cases it will be impossible to prevent suppura¬ 
tion from taking place, in which case, as soon as 


DROPSY. 


51 


it is ascertained that pus is forming, the cold ap¬ 
plications should be dispensed with, and hot ap¬ 
plications or warm poultices applied instead, if 
the inflammation is external. 

If the inflammation is deep seated, or is in 
some internal organ, hot fomentations should be 
applied over the part once or twice a day for 
from fifteen minutes to half an hour or more, 
followed by cold applications for from three to five 
minutes; or, the hot and cold applications may 
alternate. A cool wet cloth should be applied at 
all times when the fomentation is not applied. If 
the feet and limbs are cold, apply a hot foot¬ 
bath. If the patient is strong, a warm bath of any 
kind for ten minutes may be given twice a week ; 
but if he is weak, give the lialf-bath at 90° or 95° 
for ten minutes, or the dripping-sheet at 92°, or, 
if he is very weak, give the sponge-bath. 

Local inflammation will be treated under the 
head of local diseases. 

DROPSY. 

This word signifies an accumulation of watery 
liquid in some of the natural cavities of the body, 
or a diffusion of this fluid through the loose tis¬ 
sue, or both. It is an important symptom of 
other diseases, for water can never collect unless 
some of the tissues are diseased. 

There are certain cavities in the body which 
do not open externally, neither do they commu¬ 
nicate with other cavities, nor with each other 
by any opening. These cavities are each lined 
with smooth and delicate membranes, called 
serous membranes, whose office it is to secrete a 
smooth serous or watery fluid for the purpose of 


52 


TREATMENT OF DISEASE. 


keeping the organs contained within the cavity 
well lubricated. 

In health, there is a constant secretion of this 
fluid, yet it does not accumulate, for it is ab¬ 
sorbed as fast as it is poured into these cavities. 
There may be two conditions in which this water 
may be caused to accumulate. The first, which 
is called active or acute dropsy, is caused by an 
inflamed condition of the serous membrane. 
This causes an excessive amount of the fluid to 
be poured out. The second is called chronic 
or passive dropsy, and is occasioned by deficient 
absorption caused by an inflamed, congested, 
torpid, or otherwise diseased condition of some of 
the vital organs. 

Such being the case, it is evident that any¬ 
thing which can induce irritation, congestion, or 
a slight degree of inflammation of the serous 
membranes, such as cold, the sudden repelling 
(striking in) of skin diseases, the changing of the 
seat (metastasis) of gout or rheumatism (this is 
caused by taking drugs), etc., will occasion acute 
or active dropsy. Secondly, whatever weakens 
the tissues or impoverishes the blood, as insuffi¬ 
cient food, loss of blood, or exhausting disease. 
Thirdly, anything which obstructs the circulation 
and causes a retention or sluggish movement of 
blood in the veins, as the closing of the veins by 
inflammation, or the pressure of swollen or in¬ 
flamed organs. The pressure caused by tumors, 
as well as organic disease of any of the vital 
organs, will frequently cause chronic dropsy. 

If dropsy occurs within the skull, it is called 
hydrocephalus, or dropsy of the brain. If it oc¬ 
curs within the chest, or thorax, it is called liy- 
drothorax, or dropsy of the chest. If within the 


DROPSY. 


53 


pericardium—the membrane that surrounds the 
heart—it is called hydropericardium, or dropsy 
of the heart. If it occurs within the peritoneum 
—the membrane which lines the abdominal cav¬ 
ity—it is called ascites. If the water is collected 
within the coats of the testicle, it is called hydro¬ 
cele. If the water is generally diffused through¬ 
out the loose tissues of the entire body, it is 
called anasarca, or general dropsy. If the dropsy 
is confined to the feet, or to any other small lo¬ 
cality, it is called oedema. 

Acute dropsy, or that form which is produced 
by active inflammation of the serous membranes, 
will generally end favorably soon after the in¬ 
flammation of the membranes subsides, but that 
which supervenes on other diseases is rarely cur¬ 
able. 

General Treatment. —In treating dropsy it 
is important to know its cause. In the acute 
form, the treatment must be such as to allay the 
inflammation. This will be spoken of in con¬ 
nection with local inflammations. In treating 
chonic dropsy, we should seek to improve the 
general health of the patient by a careful com¬ 
pliance with all of the la\YS of health. The ac¬ 
cumulated water may be removed by occasional 
sweats taken perhaps twice a week, also the 
wet-slieet-pack may be taken once a week and 
the hot-air or vapor-bath once. Warm clothing 
should be worn at all times. In addition to the 
above, the patient should take constitutional 
treatment, which see. In many cases, the water 
accumulates so as almost to prevent breathing. 
In such case, it is necessarv to draw the water 
off by tapping. 


54 


TREATMENT OF DISEASE. 


SCROFULA. 

The term scrofula comes from the word scrofa, 
which signifies a sow, because swine were 
supposed to be especially subject to swellings in 
the neck. This term is used to designate a pe¬ 
culiar primary, constitutional disease, which may 
result either in the formation of tubercles or in 
some specific form of inflammation or ulceration. 
The peculiar condition of the system that lies at 
the foundation of these varieties of this wide¬ 
spread disease is called the scrofulous, strumous, 
or tuberculous diathesis. This term simply signi¬ 
fies a frail, delicate, infirm, lax organization with 
weak depurating organs. In the early stages of 
this disease, tubercles are developed. 

The word tubercle signifies a knot, or excres¬ 
cence. A tubercle is a small tumor or morbid 
growth in the substance of an organ. It differs 
from the tissues, yet it has some vitality. It is 
somewhat of the nature of the wart. At first, the 
tubercle is a gray, tough, compressible, semi-trans¬ 
parent substance, resembling in appearance the 
millet seed. 

For a time, tubercles have a low vitality, but 
after a while, they die and are decomposed into 
a yellow, cheesy mass. These tubercles have 
been found in various organs. The following is 
the order of frequency in which various organs 
were found affected, by Willigk, who examined 
1317 cases of tuberculous diseases. 

The lungs were the most frequently affected, 
next, the intestines, mesenteric glands, larynx, 
lymphatic glands, peritoneum, spleen, kidneys, 
pleura, liver, air passages, bones, genital or- 


SCROFULA 


55 


gans, brain, membranes of the brain, urinary 
passages, heart case, stomach, bowels, skin, 
muscles, tongue, pharynx, pancreas, and heart. 
It will be seen that every organ is liable to 
be the seat of tubercles. When these tuber¬ 
cles break down, they usually form abscesses 
or ulcers. Sometimes the decomposed tubercles 
are gathered up by the lymphatic vessels and 
carried to the lymphatic glands (generally of the 
neck, or those under the arms, or in the groins), 
where they are lodged. These glands soon be¬ 
come inflamed and an abscess forms which soon 
becomes a foul, running ulcer, and is very hard 
to heal. If the tubercles form in the lungs, the 
disease is called tubercular consumption. In this 
case, abscesses form in the lungs. If the tuber¬ 
cles form in the mesentery—the fatty membrane 
that binds the intestines together—abscesses form, 
and mesenteric consumption, or consumption of 
the bowels, is the result. 

Tubercles of the skin are usually formed in the 
face. There is to be seen an innumerable num¬ 
ber of small, red eminences, which are hard and 
of a bright color. These occasionally become 
disorganized, and discharge pus until the tuber¬ 
cle is all removed, after which the sore heals. 

The scrofulous diathesis is very easily recog¬ 
nized. The child has a pale and pasty complex¬ 
ion, large head, narrow chest, protuberent belly, 
weak and flabby muscles, and is apt to have sore 
eyelids, or sore ears, or sores about its face and 
neck. Scrofula may develop at any period of 
life in those who are liable to it. The special 
causes most frequently assigned for its appear¬ 
ance are hereditary influences, impure air, im- 


56 


TREATMENT OF DISEASE. 


proper food, cold, damp atmosphere, and syphi¬ 
litic affections. 

By hereditary influences is meant that the 
child has inherited a weak constitution—weak 
vital organs—from his parents. 

Treatment.— It is evident that all those causes 
which induce this disease must he sedulously 
avoided. The patient should have an abundance 
of pure, fresh air and clear sunlight. He should 
have an abundant supply of nutritious food, 
which should consist principally of fruits, grains, 
and vegetables. Greasy and oily food is partic¬ 
ularly bad in this disease, and should be avoided. 
Milk, if pure, is not objectionable when cooked 
with other food. The patient should exercise 
daily in the open air according to his strength. 
He should bathe two or three times a week. 
The form of bath is immaterial. It may be the 
tepid full-bath for ten minutes, or the half-bath, 
or dripping-sheet, or any of these alternated with 
the wet-sheet-pack. If there is fever, the cool 
full bath or pack may be taken once or twice 
daily as long as the fever lasts. The bowels 
must be kept free by the use of proper food or 
with enemas. The patient should take a sun¬ 
bath daily. Cold wet compresses should be con¬ 
stantly applied to the tumors so long as they 
manifest heat, redness, or pain. Nothing but the 
strictest observance of the laws of health will 
enable a person to overcome this disease. See 
Constitutional Treatment, and bathe as there di¬ 
rected. 

CANCER. 

This distressing malady makes its first ap¬ 
pearance as a hard tumor. At first, it cannot be 


CANCER. 


o t 

determined with certainty that it is a cancer, but 
after remaining dormant for a time (this may 
vary from a few weeks or months to many years), 
it increases in size, and growths called roots are 
seen proceeding from it into the surrounding tis¬ 
sues. After a time, the tumor becomes painful, 
the pains being sharp, or lancinating,and, finally, it 
becomes an open ulcer, discharging fetid, watery 
matter. The skin becomes tawny or straw col¬ 
ored, and the general health soon gives way. 

Of the cause of cancer, little is known. All 
classes of society are subject to it. It appears, 
however, that those who are descended from can¬ 
cerous, scrofulous, or consumptive parents, are 
more liable to it than others. 

Treatment.— It is seldom that cancer is cured, 
yet palliative treatment may be so administered 
that life may be prolonged. The great point is 
to keep the constitutional powers up to as near 
the standard of health as possible, which can 
only be accomplished by nourishing food, pure 
air, warm clothing, personal cleanliness, mental 
occupation, and a strict observance of the laws 
of life and health. In the incipient stages, 
cancers, as well as other tumors, are often re¬ 
moved by absorption induced by an abstemious 
diet. It is not meant by this that the patient 
should so far reduce himself as to become weak, 
but that he should use the best and most whole¬ 
some food in as small quantity as the demands of 
nutrition will allow. In all other respects, the 
general treatment pointed out for scrofula should 
be followed in treating cancer. If the cancer has 
become an open ulcer, it will be useless to try to 
cure it by absorption. Cancer is often removed 

Treat Dis. 4 1 


58 


TREATMENT OF DISEASE. 


by the knife or by caustics; but it generally re¬ 
appears after a few months unless removed while 
in its first stages. It has been removed when in 
the first stage by absorption induced by the fre¬ 
quent application of freezing mixtures. 

When this disease is known to exist, all stim¬ 
ulants and irritating food must be avoided. 

O 


RICKETS. 

This disease usually manifests itself in early 
life, generally previous to the fifth year. It is a 
constitutional disease, and consists chiefly in an 
absence of earthy matter from the bones. The 
cause may be hereditary, children of scrofulous 
parents being particularly liable to it. Anything 
that impairs the powers of digestion and assimi¬ 
lation is also a remote cause of this disease. In¬ 
sufficient and improper food, impure air, resi¬ 
dence in damp, cold, dark, or filthy dwellings, 
and all similar circumstances, serve to induce 
this disease. 

Symptoms.— The earliest symptoms are lan¬ 
guor, occasional fever, sadness, irritability of 
temper, copious perspiration about the head, 
general tenderness of the body and limbs. After 
a while, the head appears enlarged, the face pale, 
and the features thin, the wrists, knees, and 
ankles become swollen, and are slightly painful 
to the touch, and if the child attempts to stand 
or walk, the legs soon become crooked. 

Treatment.— As the chief cause of this dis¬ 
ease is improper food during the first year of the 
child’s life, together with other unhygienic hab¬ 
its and agents, it is absolutely necessary that the 
child should have the best of food (graham bread 


GOUT. 


59 

and milk is excellent), plenty of pure air and 
sunlight, regular exercise, and that it be kept 
clean. This, with two or three cool baths each 
week and a thorough hand rubbing daily, will 
generally bring about a measure of health, but 
more or less deformity will always exist, unless 
taken in hand early. 

Parents who are of scrofulous diathesis (see 
Scrofula) should pay the strictest attention to the 
laws of health if they would have their children 
escape rickets and other diseases toward which 
they are liable to transmit to their offspring a 
tendency. 

OBESITY OR CORPULENCY. 

A morbid accumulation of fat may shorten life 
by inducing other diseases, and by suffocation. 

Persons who have a tendency to obesity should 
abstain from the use of sugar, or sweets, and from 
all kind of fats and oils, butter and cream, and 
from food that contains much starch, such as po¬ 
tatoes, fine wheaten flour, corn, sago, etc., and 
they should not overeat. A spare diet, composed 
of subacid fruits, oatmeal, unbolted wheat meal, 
and an abundance of out-door work, with a daily 
cool dripping-slieet-bath, will correct this diffi¬ 
culty. 

GOUT. 

This is an inflammatory affection of the joints 
of the toes, feet, fingers, and hands. It is accom¬ 
panied by great pain and swelling of the affected 
joints with more or less fever, and by some dis¬ 
turbance of the digestive organs. 

This disease is generally caused by the use of 



60 


TREATMENT OF DISEASE. 


rich and highly seasoned food, wine, and spir¬ 
ituous and fermented, liquors. When drugs 
are administered in the treatment of this dis¬ 
ease, it is not uncommon for the inflammation 
of the joint to suddenly subside, and for a new 
inflammation to manifest itself in some of the in¬ 
ternal organs, which in many cases proves fatal. 
This changing the seat of the inflammation, which 
is called metastasis, has never been known to oc¬ 
cur under the hygienic treatment. 

Treatment. —The first thing to be done to in¬ 
sure recovery is to cut off the supply of rich food, 
pies, cakes, preserves, puddings, gravies, condi¬ 
ments, and all spirituous or fermented.liquors, 
and to place the patient on a spare diet of hy¬ 
gienic food (see Diet for Sick). He must eat as 
little as he can subsist upon for a few days. The 
cold compress should be applied to the inflamed 
part until the heat is reduced to the normal 
standard, but no longer. If the cold water causes 
pain, tepid water can be applied, and then the 
temperature gradually lowered. A daily pack 
should be given for half an hour, followed by a 
dripping-sheet, or any other form of general bath. 

If the patient is weak, with feeble nerves, and 
a shattered constitution, cold water should not be 
applied, but all the applications should be tepid 
or warm. In some instances, hot fomentations 
applied to the affected part for fifteen or twenty 
minutes will be very beneficial. 

RHEUMATISM. 

This disease is not confined to any special lo¬ 
cality nor to any particular organ of the body, 
but it particularly affects the dense tissues of the 
joints, the tendons, and ligaments, and the mem- 


ACUTE RHEUMATISM. 


Cl 


branous slicatlis of the muscles and their fibers, 
and the lining membranes of the cavities of the 
body, all of which are composed of white, fibrous 
tissue, to which this disease seems to be confined. 
There are two forms of rheumatism, the acute 
and the chronic. 

ACUTE RHEUMATISM. 

This disease is characterized by fever, profuse 
sweating, and inflammation of the membranes of 
some one or more of the large joints. This dis¬ 
ease is to be especially dreaded on account of the 
extreme suffering it causes. 

Symptoms.— The early symptoms are restless¬ 
ness and fever, succeeded at the end of twenty- 
four hours by stiffness and aching pain in the 
limbs and joints. Exposure to cold and damp or 
similar depressing influences generally precedes 
these symptoms. The pain quickly increases, 
and in a very short time is accompanied by 
swelling and great tenderness in one or more of 
the large joints, with high fever and much gen¬ 
eral disturbance. When the disease is fully es¬ 
tablished, the patient is very restless, yet he 
dares not move. The pain in the affected joints 
(many of the joints are frequently affected) is so 
severe that the weight of the bed-clothes can 
hardly be tolerated. The skin is not unfrequent- 
ly bathed in sweat. 

Treatment.— Apply prolonged warm fomen¬ 
tations to the affected joints, or the hot fomenta¬ 
tion alternated with cold every five or ten min¬ 
utes for a half hour at a time, to mitigate the ex¬ 
treme pain and tenderness, then give a tepid 
wet-sheet-pack for an hour, unless the patient 


G 2 


TREATMENT OF DISEASE. 


becomes weary. As soon as the patient can be 
moved from liis bed, he should take a warm 
full bath, or a warm sitz-bath, for fifteen minutes, 
once a day, or he may take the hot-air-bath, or 
the vapor-bath, for fifteen minutes. The patient 
should be restricted to a very spare diet for the 
first few days, or until the fever subsides. The 
diet should be composed of wheat meal or oatmeal 
gruel, toast, bread, and acid fruits; lemons, espe¬ 
cially, may be given freely. 

CHRONIC RHEUMATISM. 

This disease is similar to gout, except that the 
large joints are affected instead of the small ones. 
It differs from acute rheumatism in that the 
pain and tenderness are less, and there is little or 
no fever. 

Treatment.— The same as for gout, which see. 

FEVERS. 

A fever is a disease in which there is a general 
disturbance of most or all of the vital functions, 
attended with cold, hot, and sweating stages. 
There is first a preliminary stage, of languor and 
weakness, with defective appetite, nausea, head¬ 
ache, pains in the small of the back, and limbs, 
with slight chilliness, or shivering. This is suc¬ 
ceeded by the confirmed stage, in which there is 
preternatural heat of the body, caused by in¬ 
creased activity and waste of the tissues, in¬ 
creased circulation, as manifested by the increased 
pulse, and extreme weakness. 


FEVEHS. 


63 


CLASSIFICATION OF FEVERS. 

It is hardly possible to find any two writers 
who are agreed as to the classification of fevers. 
We find fevers spoken of as typhus fever, brain 
fever, congestive, yellow, ship, spotted, jail, camp, 
hospital, puerperal, bilious, putrid, low, nervous, 
mucous, mesenteric, milk, catarrhal, Panama and 
mountain fevers, ataxic fever, adynamic fever 
gastric, enteric, typhoid, etc. This complexity 
of nomenclature is puzzling, not only to the non¬ 
professional reader, but to the medical practition¬ 
er, for many a physician finds it difficult to an¬ 
swer anxious friends when they ask what kind 
of fever the patient lias. To avoid confusing the 
mind of the reader, fevers will be classified in 
this work in the simplest manner possible. 

As previously stated, it is evident that it does 
not matter whether we know the name of a disease, 
provided we know the conditions of the patient; 
for if we know these, we shall know what the pa¬ 
tient requires, even though the disease has no 
name. It is evident that the knowledge of the 
name of a disease will do us no good unless 
we know the conditions implied by that name. 
Therefore, out of the many names that have been 
applied to each form of fever, that one will be 
selected which most fully expresses the condition 
of the patient. 

A person sick with fever will always be in one 
of three conditions, and the treatment depends 
wholly on these conditions. 

1. He may be of vigorous constitution, with 
strong vital organs, and possessed of a great 
amount of vitality, without much gross or waste 
material in his system. In this case, there is 


GI TREATMENT OF DISEASE. 

great activity, with a strong determination of 
blood to the surface, so much so that the surface 
appears inflamed, and there is great heat, and 
the effort continues until the system is purified. 
Hence, we call this inflammatory fever, or, sim¬ 
ply, continued fever. 

There is still another form of fever, the nature 
of which is precisely like the above form in all 
respects except in the periodicity of the parox¬ 
ysms. In this form, there is a complete cessation 
or intermission of the paroxysms, during which 
the patient feels well. In this form of fever, the 
paroxysms may recur daily, or every other day, or 
they may skip two days. This form of fever is 
called intermittent fever, or ague. 

2. He may be weak and very gross, his system 
being filled with the retained excretions which 
his organs of depuration have failed to eliminate 
from his system. In this case, there is not much 
vitality. He may have had a large amount of 
vitality, however; but by unhygienic habits, 
such as overwork, either physical or mental, eat¬ 
ing highly-seasoned or greasy food, or drinking 
alcoholic beverages, smoking or chewing tobacco, 
breathing impure air, etc., the vital organs have 
gradually weakened and failed to depurate the 
system properly, and, as a consequence, it is filled 
with retained excretions. Grossness and strength 
cannot go together, for when there is much 
vitality, the system is kept pure by the proper 
organs. A fever with the patient in this gross 
condition is properly called putrid fever. 

3. He may have a weak nervous system, and 
but little vitality, and at the same time not be 
very gross. It matters not how much original 
vitality he may have had, if it has been reduced 


CLASSIFICATION OF FEVERS. 


05 


by any cause that lias not occasioned much gross¬ 
ness, lie will have a fever characterized by ex¬ 
treme weakness and nervous irritability. In this 
case, it will be proper to call the disease nervous 
fever. 

When either of the last two—that is, the 
putrid and the nervous—forms of fever are contin¬ 
ued day after day, without intermission or re¬ 
mission of the paroxysm, the fever is said to be 
of the continued type, and thus we have putrid 
continued fever, and nervous continued fever. 
Typhus and typhoid fevers may be either nervous 
or putrid; but they always belong to one or the 
other of these classes. If there is a daily subsi¬ 
dence or remission of the paroxysm, and yet not 
a full intermission, the fever is said to be of the 
remittent type ; hence, we may have putrid remit¬ 
tent fever and nervous remittent fever. 

In addition to the foregoing, there are certain 
forms of fever which depend upon some spe¬ 
cific cause, and which are characterized by cer¬ 
tain skin eruptions. These are properly called 
eruptive fevers. Of these, there are several 
varieties, each of which is only induced by its 
own special cause, and is characterized by its own 
peculiar eruption, hence it is proper that each 
variety have a special name, as small-pox, cow- 
pox, chicken-pox, measles, scarlatina, etc. 

Thus far, fever has been considered as a pri¬ 
mary disease, not dependent on any other disease. 
It is often the case, however, that fever is only a 
symptom of some other disease, and had it not 
been for that other disease, the fever would not 
have occurred. All such fevers are to be classed 
as symptomatic. 

It will be seen by the foregoing remarks that 


06 


TREATMENT OF DISEASE. 


all fevers must assume one of three typer. They 
must be either continued, remittent, or intermit¬ 
tent. The type which a fever assumes depends 
wholly upon the condition of the patient at the 
time the fever makes its appearance. If he has 
strong vital organs, the disease is continuous un- 
til his sytem is purified, regardless of the amount 
of grossness his system may contain; but if he 
has not sufficient vitality to continue the reme¬ 
dial effort until purification is accomplished, then 
the fever intermits or remits, as the case may be, 
for the purpose of affording rest to the vital 
organs. Therefore, it is evident that the only 
importance we should attach to the type a 
fever may assume is in view of the assistance it 
may render us in determining the actual condi¬ 
tion of the patient. Hence, type is only symp¬ 
tomatic of certain conditions, and as there are 
many symptoms which indicate the condition of 
the patient, there is no more propriety in basing 
a plan of treatment for fever on the type it as¬ 
sumes than on any other single symptom it may 
manifest. 

As has been shown, all fever patients must be 
in one of three conditions, viz., strong, with but 
little grossness, or weak, with but little grossness, 
or weak, with great grossness. It therefore fol¬ 
lows that in classifying fevers with reference to 
the treatment, they should be classified in accord¬ 
ance with these conditions, and this is the plan 
adopted in this work. This gives us, so far as 
treatment is concerned, but three forms of fever 
when considered as a primary disease, viz., 

Simple Fever, 

Putrid Fever, 

Nervous Fever. 


GENERAL TREATMENT OF FEVER. 


G7 


Let it be understood that in this classification, 
we have special reference to the condition of the 
patient and to the treatment of the fever, and not 
to its cause, nor to the symptoms it manifests, nor 
to the liability, in certain cases, of the disease be¬ 
ing communicated from one person to another. 

GENERAL CAUSES OP FEVER. 

These may be stated in general terms to be 
anything that will cause a clogging or weaken¬ 
ing of any of the purifying organs, thereby caus¬ 
ing them to cease their work, and, as a conse¬ 
quence, causing the body to become filled with 
retained excretions. The fever is nothing more 
nor less than an attempt on the part of the or¬ 
ganism to purify the system by exciting undue 
activity in various parts, thereby disturbing all 
the organic functions. The cause may be local 
contagions, or poisons, impure water or unhealth¬ 
ful food, foul air, personal uncleanliness, overwork, 
worry of mind, exposure, gluttony, intemperance, 
or starvation. 

GENERAL TREATMENT OF FEVER. 

It will be readily understood that in treating- 
fever—the object being to restore the patient to 
health—the treatment should begin at the very 
outset of the disease, and that it should be such 
as the conditions of the patient indicate. Let us 
examine these conditions. 1. There is languor 
and weakness. 2. The appetite is defective. 
This is because the food cannot be used in build¬ 
ing up the tissues, as they are engaged in other 
work—the disease—therefore the system makes 
no demand for food, but loathes it. 3. There is 


08 


TREATMENT OF DISEASE. 


nausea, caused by morbid matter in the stomach. 
4. There is usually a constipated state of the 
bowels. 5. There is headache, with a slight sen¬ 
sation of chilliness. These are the premonitory 
symptoms of fever in nearly every form and case 
that occurs, and they should not go unheeded for 
a moment. 

If proper treatment is adopted as soon as these 
symptoms begin to manifest themselves, the dis¬ 
ease may be so modified—if not entirely obviated 
—as to cause but little alarm, and no serious dis¬ 
comfort to the patient. 

Begin the treatment, then, as soon as the 
symptoms of febrile disorder make their appear¬ 
ance. If the patient has no appetite, he should 
fast for one or two meals. If lie feels languid 
and weak, he should lay aside all business and 
care, and rest till he is well. If troubled with 
nausea, or sickness at the stomach, he should 
drink two or three pints of tepid water and titil¬ 
late his throat with his finger or with a feather 
to cause vomiting, and thus free his stomach of 
morbid or bilious matter. (If the warm water 
does not occasion vomiting, use hot water.) If 
his bowels are constipated, he should free them 
with a thorough enema of pure water. If his 
head aches or is congested, he should take a hot 
bath, and draw the blood to the surface and ex¬ 
tremities. The bath may be either the full-bath, 
sitz-bath, or the hot-air or vapor-batli. It should 
be taken until perspiration is induced, unless 
faintness occurs. This should be followed by a 
cool bath for three minutes, and then by wiping- 
dry, or in place of the bath, a tepid pack may be 
taken for an hour. The majority of cases of fe¬ 
ver, which, under drug treatment, prove most 


GENERAL TREATMENT OF FEVER. GO 

serious maladies, would be prevented if treated 
in the above manner at the outset. Fevers in 
general should be treated with tepid or warm 
water. 

In the majority of cases, the patient fails to 
take the treatment he should until after the be¬ 
ginning of the secondary or confirmed stage. In 
this stage, there is greater weakness, an intensi¬ 
fied headache, preternatural heat, which may be 
very great, and an accelerated pulse. If the 
treatment is now commenced, it should be by 
placing the patient in a warm or hot pack or 
bath, unless the heat of the patient be very in¬ 
tense, then cold water may be used. The heat of 
the patient will be reduced by the evaporation of 
the water from the surface of his body. Cold 
cloths should be applied to the head, unless it is 
congested and feels sore, in which case apply hot 
fomentations. The food should be very plain, 
yet nutritious (see Diet for the Sick). 

There is a tendency in all fevers, as the doctors 
say, to “ run a certain course and then cease,” and 
scores of quotations from many of the best med¬ 
ical authors might be cited in which they in¬ 
form their students that it is impossible to cure a 
fever, and warn them against making the at¬ 
tempt ; for, say they, “ after it has run its course, it 
wdll terminate naturally in the re-establishment of 
health when uninterfered with by art.”— Tanner. 
Therefore, in treating fever, we should ever keep 
in view the fact that fever is not to be cured, but 
to be guided. In seeking to direct or control fe¬ 
ver, we should ever bear in mind the three con¬ 
ditions, in either of which the patient may be 
found, viz.: 1. Strength and activity without 
grossness. 2. Weakness without much gross- 


70 


TREATMENT OF DISEASE. 


ness. *3. Weakness with grossness. In the first 
form, the fever being high, without grossness, the 
principal requirement is to cool the patient. In 
the second form, there being weakness without 
grossness, the principal requirement is to balance 
the circulation. While in the third form, in 
which there is weakness with grossness, the prin¬ 
cipal requirement is to purify the system. In all 
forms of fever, free ventilation and sunlight are 
necessary to the patient’s recovery. 

SIMPLE FEVER OF THE CONTINUED 

TYPE. 

This is a disease which need, not give any 
alarm if it is rightly managed, as it is seldom fa¬ 
tal. It may be so slight as to cause but little dis¬ 
turbance of the vital functions, or it may mani¬ 
fest itself with very strongly marked symptoms. 
This class of fever includes what is called in¬ 
flammatory fever. 

Symptoms. —Lassitude, lack of energy for bod¬ 
ily or mental exertion, loss of appetite, nausea, 
pain in front portion of the head, aching of the 
back and limbs, coldness of surface, especially of 
the back, and frequently there is shivering. The 
chill may be quite light or very severe, or any¬ 
where between these extremes. At the end of a 
few hours, in most cases, the chill passes off, and 
the skin becomes dry and hot. In other cases, 
the heat will be extreme and the skin swollen 
and florid. The pulse will be quick, but not fre¬ 
quent, hard, full, and strong, the tongue, white 
with red edges, and there is generally a constant 
thirst; the eyes are reddish; the urine is scanty and 
high colored; the bowels are constipated. Gener- 


CONTINUED TYPE. 


71 


ally, there is not much mental disturbance, yet 
in some cases, the mind wanders, and the patient 
is restless, appealing very ill. There is a slight 
aggravation of all the symptoms each forenoon, 
and a still greater aggravation toward evening. 

The fever continues without intermission until 
the system is purified—the fever being a purify¬ 
ing effort—which usually occurs, when there is 
no treatment given, within eight or ten days. 
Under the hygienic system of treatment, the pa¬ 
tient generally recovers within five or six days, 
and frequently within two or three, if treatment 
is given at the beginning. Treated with drugs, 
it is not uncommon for it to exceed the ten days 
which unaided nature requires, and to be changed 
into the putrid form. 

Treatment.— If the patient has sufficient vi¬ 
tality, the pack may be given two or three times 
a day, at a temperature most agreeable to him, 
until the heat becomes normal. Or large wet 
cloths may be spread over the body and limbs, and 
changed as often as they become warm. Free 
the bowels with enemas; free the stomach with 
warm-water emetics; keep the head cool. The 
pouring head-bath may be used freely in this 
form of fever. The room must be well ven¬ 
tilated at all times. In all respects other than 
those given above, follow directions for General 
Treatment of Fever. 

SIMPLE FEVER OF THE INTERMIT¬ 
TENT TYPE-AGUE. 

This disease is known as ague, intermittent 
fever, chill fever, etc. It also includes dumb 
ague. 


TREATMENT OF DISEASE. 


There are three forms of this disease, viz., 

Every-day ague, or Quotidian Type ; 

Every-other-day ague, u Tertian Type; 

Every-fourth-day ague, n Quartan Type. 

Cause.—A gue may be caused by any of the 
general causes of fever, which see. 

Symptoms.— This fever may be readily distin¬ 
guished from all other forms of fever by the fact 
that the paroxysms, which are characterized by 
hot, cold, and sweating stages, occur in regular 
succession, the cold stage varying from thirty 
minutes to four hours. This stage is gradually 
succeeded by the hot stage, in which the surface 
of the body becomes dry, and intensely hot. The 
mouth is parched, there is excessive thirst, bound¬ 
ing pulse, painful sensation of fullness in the 
head, general uneasiness, and frequently there is 
delirium. The hot stage, which is seldom of less 
than two or three, nor more than ten or twelve, 
hours’ duration, is followed by the sweating stage 
in which the whole body generally participates. 
The pulse and breathing become natural, and the 
patient soon feels quite well, and so continues un¬ 
til the next day, in every-day ague, or until the 
third or fourth day, in the tertian or quartan 
form of the disease, when he again passes through 
the paroxysm. These paroxysms generally re¬ 
turn at about the same hour of the day. In some 
cases, however, they make their appearance an 
hour or so earlier each day; in others, an hour 
later. 

Like all other forms of fever, there is in this 
disease a tendency to terminate favorably, with¬ 
out the interference of art; but it is a slow dis¬ 
ease, and in very many instances, the patient feels 
completely worn out before the termination. 


INTERMITTENT FEVER—AGUE. ’ 73 

Treatment. —If the case is a recent one, and 
the patient’s vitality is not much lowered, it is 
easily managed. The bowels should be freed 
with enemas, and the stomach with warm-water 
emetics. When the chill is expected, the patient 
should go to bed, cover up warm, with a hot jug 
or hot brick to his feet, and a bag of hot sand to 
• his back, and a cold wet cloth to his head if it 
aches. He should drink a glass or two of hot 
water during the cold stage. As soon as the hot 
stage comes on, or soon after, the patient should 
be placed in a warm wet-sheet-pack, in which he 
may lie from thirty to sixty minutes, having a 
cold wet cloth on his head. Some prefer the cold 
pack when the fever is on, but the temperature 
is immaterial, for the cold pack immediately be¬ 
comes warm. The patient should be allowed to 
drink freely of cold water or of lemonade. On 
the day during which the chill does not occur, he 
should take either the hot full-bath, sitz-bath, 
vapor-bath, or hot-air-batli—it is immaterial 
which—and immediately following this, the 
sponge-bath or cool dripping-sheet. 

If the case is of long standing, or if the patient’s 
vitality be low, the hot full-bath should not be 
administered oftener than once a week; the warm 
sitz and foot-bath should take its place on other 
days. In chronic cases, the liver, or spleen, or 
both, are torpid or congested, and to induce ac¬ 
tion in them, the wet-girdle should be worn most 
of the time. Rest from all care and labor is es¬ 
sential to recovery. If hard water is used for 
drink it must be discontinued and soft water 
substituted. 

In this disease it will be necessary to provide 

Treat. T)is. 5 


74 TREATMENT OF DISEASE. 

the patient with a nourishing diet, which may 
include any of the articles mentioned under the 
head of Diet for the Sick. 

CONGESTIVE CHILLS. 

Occasionally a person is taken with what is 
called a congestive chill, which lasts from ten 
to thirty-six hours. The blood all recedes from 
the surface to the vital organs, which become 
so congested that they cannot do their work; 
consequently the patient dies. 

Treatment.— Give the full-bath at 110°, for 
fifteen minutes, then dash a few pailfuls of cold wa¬ 
ter over the body, and over the back in particu¬ 
lar. If, after the lapse of thirty minutes, the 
chill still continues, apply ice the full length of 
the spine, or a stream of cold water. The use of 
ice is often effectual when all other appliances 
fail. In applying ice, move it from the back of 
the neck down the spine repeatedly. 

NERVOUS FEVER—TYPHOID FEVER. 

In this fever, there is great debility, occasioned 
by the peculiarly weakened condition of the vi¬ 
tal organs at the access of the fever. This dis¬ 
ease usually lasts from fourteen to twenty-four 
days, when no drugs are taken. If drugs are 
taken, it very often lasts from thirty to fifty 
days, unless it sooner terminates in death. 

Symptoms.— At first the symptoms do not dif¬ 
fer from those "of a mild or insignificant fever; 
but as the disease advances, the pulse becomes 
frequent, weak, and irregular, the mind is de¬ 
jected or delirious, the tongue is covered with a 
thick, white mucus. The countenance is pale 


PUTRID FEVER. 


75 


and expressionless, yet the patient manifests no 
apparent anxiety. There is extreme weakness, 
but not much grossness or putricity, the breath 
is not very foul, neither are the discharges from 
the bowels as offensive as in putrid fever. After 
a few days, the skin, which at first is dry, becomes 
covered with a clammy sweat. 

Treatment. —The cold applications must never 
be administered in this disease, except to the 
head. If the fever is general and the heat great, 
the tepid sheet may be applied. Generally there 
will be a feeble circulation in the feet, conse¬ 
quently they will be cold. The principal treat¬ 
ment should consist in keeping the circulation 
equalized. This can be done by applying jugs 
or bottles of hot water or bags of hot sand to the 
feet and limbs when cold, and tepid wet cloths 
spread over the body and limbs when preternat- 
urally hot, or by frequent spongings of the 
whole body with tepid water. Relieve diarrhea, 
constipation, or nausea, the same as in other 
fevers. Give frequent sips of water to drink, but 
it must not be too cold. In this form of fever, 
the patient must have perfect quiet, and must 
see no one but the nurse. In all other respects, 
treat as directed for fevers in general. Under 
drug treatment, this disease is often fatal; under 
the hygienic system, it is seldom fatal. 

PUTRID FEVER—TYPHUS FEVER. 

This form of fever is characterized by great 
grossness. It is the camp, ship, jail, hospital, and 
mountain fever, of some authors; and includes 
what is known as yellow fever, bilious fever, and 
wdiat many call typhoid fever. 


76 


TREATMENT OF DISEASE. 


Symptoms. —Putrid fever differs from nervous 
in tliat while the nervous form commences mildly, 
with only slight shiverings, the heat being scarce¬ 
ly above the natural temperature, the pulse small 
and only a little quickened, the putrid form com¬ 
mences suddenly and progresses rapidly, the chill 
is severe, the strength fails rapidly, the pulse is 
hard, small, quick, and fluttering,ringing in the ears, 
intense pain over the forehead and crown, with 
throbbing in the temples. The countenance has 
an anxious expression, and there will be delirium, 
followed by stupor. The breath is hot and offens¬ 
ive. The tongue is at first of a dark yellow, 
then of a brown or black, color, and finally it 
cracks; the lips turn dark and crack also. The 
evacuations from the bowels and bladder are 
dark and very offensive. As the disease pro¬ 
gresses, purple spots appear on various parts of 
the surface, and the face is of a livid or dark-red 
color. 

Treatment. —The patient must have an abun¬ 
dance of pure air, as purification is the principal 
requirement in this form of fever. The sick room 
must be kept quiet. In the early stages, the 
tepid wet-sheet-pack should be given daily, or 
cloths wet in tepid water should be spread over 
all parts of his body and limbs, and changed 
every ten minutes. The feet must be kept warm 
and the head cool, at all times. The danger in 
this disease is from diarrhea and inflammation of 
the bowels; therefore, at the first appearance of 
the disease, a copious enema of warm water 
should be administered, and cool or cold wet 
cloths should be constantly applied to the abdo¬ 
men until all preternatural heat is removed. 
Hot fomentations over the bowels for twenty 


BRAIN FEVER. 


r* *7 

i i 

minutes, followed by cold compresses, are very 
useful after the diarrhea lias set in. 

In treating this fever, the rules for treating fever 
m general are applicable in all respects other than 
indicated above. The head-bath should be freely 
used. 


SYMPTOMATIC FEVERS. 

There are certain diseases, such as inflamma¬ 
tion of the brain, inflammation of the lungs, in¬ 
flammation of the lining membrane of the abdo¬ 
men, etc., in which the inflammation is so great 
as to cause a general fever. In these cases, the 
fever is symptomatic. In treating symptomatic 
fever, we are to treat the fever with reference to 
the disease of which it is a symptom, that is, we 
are to treat the fever just as we would if it were 
unattended with any local disease, and was as 
severe as we now find it. Then we are to treat 
the local disease j ust as we would the same affec¬ 
tion if it were unattended with fever. These 
two forms of treatment make up the treatment 
for that special variety of symptomatic fever. 

BRAIN FEVER. 

This fever is known by a variety of names, 
as spotted fever, cerebro-spinal meningitis, cere- 
bro-spinal typhus, malignant purple fever, en¬ 
cephalitis, etc. 

The fever in this case is purely symptomatic, 
as the real difficulty consists in an excessive con¬ 
gestion and inflammation of the brain, or its 
membranes. In most cases, the spinal cord or 
its membranes are involved in the inflammation. 
Under drug treatment, this disease is very likely 


78 


TREATMENT OF DISEASE. 


to terminate fatally; but under hygienic treat¬ 
ment, most patients recover. 

Symptoms. —This disease usually manifests it¬ 
self very suddenly, though not always. The indi¬ 
vidual may be apparently well, yet within an hour 
be taken with a severe chill, accompanied by dizzi¬ 
ness, intense headache, and vomiting, quickly fol¬ 
lowed by feverish ness, and mental prostration; oft¬ 
en there is delirium. There is extreme depression 
of the physical powers, sharp pains with stiffness 
of the muscles of the neck and back, and the 
head and neck are drawn backward. The head¬ 
ache becomes incessant and most distressing, the 
countenance, pale, anxious, and pinched; and 
there is restlessness and mental confusion. 

The tongue, pulse, and temperature, may not 
be much changed at this stage, and the bowels 
may be either loose or costive, generally the lat¬ 
ter. As the disease progresses, the pulse becomes 
hard and quick, cramps and spasmodic contrac¬ 
tions of the muscles occur in various parts of the 
body, and the jaws sometimes become locked, the 
patient is disturbed in his sleep, starting up ev¬ 
ery few minutes in a state of wild delirium. About 
the fifth or sixth day, the pulse becomes more 
frequent, the eyes are blooodsliot, the tongue is dry 
and shining, or brown and covered with what ap¬ 
pears to be dirt, an eruption generally appears 
which may vary in form and color. It is this 
eruption that gives the disease the name of spotted 
fever. The patient has less consciousness. A 
heavy stupor sets in, which if deep is very unfa¬ 
vorable; the patient becomes tremulous; the vis¬ 
ion becomes imperfect or fails, in which case the 
pupils are expanded. There is difficulty in swal¬ 
lowing; the fieces and urine may pass involunta- 


BRAIN FEVER. 


79 


rily. Of fatal cases, tliroe-fourths die before the 
tenth day, and one-third, within forty-eight hours. 
The most dangerous time is between the second 
and fifth days. 

With those who survive, the process of recov¬ 
ery is slow, and unless the patient is careful, there 
is danger of a relapse. The severity of this dis¬ 
ease depends wholly on the condition of the pa¬ 
tient. If he is vigorous and not gross, it will be 
light; but if his vitality has become somewhat 
exhausted before the access of the disease, it will 
be more severe; and if, in connection with this 
weakness, the patient is very gross, it will prob¬ 
ably prove fatal. 

Treatment.— In this disease, there is an ex¬ 
cessive accumulation of blood in the brain and 
spinal cord and their membranes, where it has 
stagnated, and a deficiency of blood in the limbs 
and extremities. Therefore, the hot bath will be 
found serviceable. It should be given as hot as 
the patient can bear, about 102° to 110°, two 
or three times a day. A convenient mode is to 
give a hot siz-bath for ten minutes, followed im¬ 
mediately by a hot pack for thirty or sixty 
minutes, using a thick woolen blanket instead of 
a cotton sheet. The blanket must be applied as 
hot as the patient can bear, and followed by a 
tepid sponge-bath. Two or three times each day, 
early in the morning, at noon, and in the evening, 
apply very hot fomentations, alternated every five 
or eight minutes with ice-cold applications, to the 
spine and head for thirty minutes, always begin¬ 
ning with the hot and ending with the cold; at 
the same time give a hot foot-bath. In mild 
cases, sitz-baths and dripping-sheets at a tempera¬ 
ture to suit the feelings of the patient may do, 


80 


TREATMENT OF DISEASE. 


but the hot treatment indicated above is prefer¬ 
able. 

As the patient recovers, the treatment may be 
reduced to a dripping-sheet or a sponge-bath three 
times a week, the diet in the meantime being 
quite light. See Diet for the Sick. 

There are several other forms of symptomatic 
fever, which will be noticed in connection with 
the diseases of which they are symptoms. We 
will next notice that class of* fevers known as 
eruptive fevers. 

SMALL-POX —VARIOLA. 

The small-pox is a contagious, eruptive fever, 
caused by the reception into the blood of a spe¬ 
cific poison. There are four stages to the disease. 
The first, which is called the period of incubation, 
usually lasts about twelve days. It varies, how¬ 
ever, running from six to twenty days, during 
which time there are no symptoms of indisposi¬ 
tion. Then the disease commences with lassitude, 
headache, pain in the back, vomiting, and shiv¬ 
ering, followed by fever, which is called the pri¬ 
mary fever. 

This constitutes the second stage. About the 
third day of the fever, an eruption makes its ap¬ 
pearance, first on the face, then on the neck and 
wrists, next on the body, and lastly on the lower 
extremities. It is generally two or three days 
extending over the entire body. Occasionally 
the eruption appears first on the extremities, but 
this is the exception. Sometimes the mucous 
membrane of the mouth and throat is covered 
with the pustules. 

The eruption first appears as minute red points 


SMALL-POX. 


81 


which gradually enlarge for about live days, at 
the end of which time they are in the form of a 
hemisphere, resembling a split pea in size and 
shape. Some of them, however, are larger, while 
others are smaller. 

About the third day after the eruption appears, 
the face becomes very much swollen and the 
patient is delirious. The pimples now begin to 
contain a clear, watery fluid which assumes some¬ 
thing of a milky appearance in about two days, 
and which, by the eighth day of the eruption, be¬ 
comes converted into yellow pus. As the pim¬ 
ples enlarge, they .are called pustules—from the 
pus they finally contain. Each pustule is sur¬ 
rounded by a highly inflamed red margin about 
the tenth or the eighth of an inch wide. 

At the end of the third stage, or about eight 
days after the eruption appears, the pustules 
break and the pus dries, forming crusts, or scabs, 
which fall off in four or five days more. The 
last period constitutes the fourth stage. 

A secondary fever sets in about the time the 
scabs begin to form, the primary fever having 
subsided about the time the pimples began to fill 
with water. The secondary fever usually subsides 
by the time the scabs fall off. 

When small-pox manifests itself as above de¬ 
scribed, it is said to be of the distinct variety, 
each pustule being by itself. If the patient’s 
blood is very gross at the time he is taken with 
this disease, all the symptoms will be much ag¬ 
gravated as the disease is much more severe, the 
fever is more violent, the eruption comes out ear¬ 
lier, the pimples on the face and on parts of the 
body run together, forming large blisters contain¬ 
ing a brown, watery fluid, while those on the body 


82 


TREATMENT OF DISEASE. 


are pale, having no red margin, and no yellow 
pus forms in them. When the pustules break, 
large brown or black scabs are formed. The tongue, 
roof of mouth, inside of nose and throat become 
covered with small pustules. The throat is very 
sore, and there is difficulty in swallowing and in 
breathing. jThe fever does not fully disappear 
when the eruption comes out. In this case, the 
disease is called Confluent Small-pox. The sec¬ 
ond variety is generally fatal under drug treat¬ 
ment. 

The contagion of small-pox may be communi¬ 
cated at any time after the fever sets in until 
the scabs fall off, and by the dead body as well 
as by the living. 

Treatment.— As soon as it is known that a 
person has been exposed to small-pox he should 
commence treatment, and adopt a hygienic diet. 
See Diet for the Sick. He should be careful not 
to overdo, and should take a tepid bath, either 
the sitz-bath or the dripping-slieet, every alter¬ 
nate day, and he should keep his mind perfectly 
calm. The bowels must be kept free with ene¬ 
mas, if necessary, and, if the weather is suitable, 
he should be much in the open air. As soon as 
he begins to feel symptoms of fever, he should 
take a sweat-batli either the hot sitz, hot-air, or 
vapor-bath. As soon as the sweat starts, he 
should wash off with cool water and wipe dry, 
and then retire to bed. There should be no car¬ 
pet on the floor, nor curtains to the bed nor to 
the windows, and the room must be kept well 
ventilated by opening the windows. A draft 
should not strike the patient, however. Light 
and fresh air are very important in this disease. 
Without them the patient must die. 


SMALL-POX. 


83 


When the hot stage arrives, the patient should 
be frequently bathed in cool water, and a cold, 
wet cloth should be kept on his head. His feet 
must be kept warm. If his bowels are consti¬ 
pated—as they generally are—move them once 
a day with a tepid enema. As long as the pre¬ 
ternatural heat keeps up, sponge the body with 
cool water, or apply cool cloths, renewing them 
frequently. Keep the room cold at all times. 
Let the patient drink freely of cool water or 
lemonade. After the pustules begin to dry up 
and the secondary fever sets in, bathe the patient 
with tepid water once a day and sponge the sur¬ 
face occasionally. After the pustules make their 
appearance, it will be necessary to give the pa¬ 
tient nourishing food in small quantities three or 
four times in the day, if he desires it so often, 
but caution must be used, however, lest the pa¬ 
tient should overeat. He should have gruel or 
porridge made of corn, wheat, or oatmeal, with a 
little milk or cream. Toasted bread, baked ap¬ 
ples, or food similar to the above is admissible. 
Carbolic acid should be sprinkled in the room 
daily. Cleanliness must be observed to insure 
recovery. To prevent the face from pitting, bathe 
it several times a day with sweet oil or glycer¬ 
ine, and admit the sunlight into the room freely; 
but do not let the direct rays strike the patient’s 
face, as it would cause pain in the eyes. When 
the pustules on the face break, flour or powdered 
starch should be sprinkled over it to exclude the 
air and thereby prevent pitting. 

With drug treatment about one in three or 
five die, and sometimes as many as three in 
eight, while with the hygienic treatment not 
more than one in ten or fifteen. In my practice 


84 


TREATMENT OF DISEASE. 


under the hygienic system I have lost but one in 
eleven. 

Preventive Measures.— Do not burn the 
clothes, but bury them in dry earth. The earth 
will absorb the poison, but lire will not de¬ 
stroy all of it. Disinfect the room by chlorine 
gas or by the free use of carbolic acid and a free 
circulation of air. 

Those who live strictly hygienically will be 
far less liable to this disease than those who live 
otherwise; and if they have it, it will not prove 
as severe as under other circumstances. Small¬ 
pox usually occurs but once. 

VACCINATION. 

This is performed for the purpose of modify¬ 
ing or preventing small-pox, but it is doubtful 
whether it is of any real benefit. I have treated 
small-pox in families where part of the children 
had been successfully vaccinated two years pre¬ 
vious, and a part had never been vaccinated. In 
these cases I could discern no difference except 
that two of those who were vaccinated had it the 
most severe, while some who had never been 
vaccinated had it very light. The advocates of 
vaccination are agreed that re vaccination should 
be resorted to at every appearance of small-pox 
as an epidemic. It is well known that some of 
the most loathsome diseases have been propagated 
by vaccination, and that scrofula has been in¬ 
duced thereby, and even syphilitic diseases have 
been transmitted. I cannot conscientiously ad¬ 
vocate vaccination as practiced generally, neither 
would I oppose vaccination under every circum¬ 
stance. I would say to the reader, if you are 


MEASLES. 


85 


going to vaccinate yourself or friends, be sure 
you do not introduce other diseases; know where 
the matter used comes from and that it is from a 
young, healthy cow or from the arm of a babe 
that is healthy and whose parents are healthy. 
Owing to the uncertainty of obtaining good ma¬ 
terial I should hesitate before advocating vaccin¬ 
ation. 


CHICKEN-POX—SWOTE-POX. 

This disease may be said to consist of an erup¬ 
tion of small rose-colored pimples, which appear 
at the end of twenty-five hours from the com¬ 
mencement of a mild fever. On the second day 
the pimples arc filled with a transparent or yel¬ 
lowish fluid and are surrounded by slight redness. 
About the fourth day scabs are formed. The 
eruption usually disappears the fifth day. This 
disease is slightly contagious, the period of incu¬ 
bation lasting about four or six days. This dis¬ 
ease usually occurs but once. 

Treatment. — Give a warm enema, and a 
warm bath or wet-sheet-pack daily, and free 
ventilation. 


MEASLES. 

This is a contagious disease that usually occurs 
but once. It is contracted by breathing air con¬ 
taining the germs or contagion that have escaped 
from those who have the disease. The period of 
incubation, or the time from exposure till the 
disease appears, is usually from nine to fourteen 
days. 

Symptoms.—T he early symptoms consist of las¬ 
situde, shivering, feverishness, catarrh, running 


8G 


TREATMENT OF DISEASE. 


at the nose, a dry, hacking cough, with hoarseness, 
difficult breathing, and sneezing. Soon there is 
swelling of the eyelids, the eyes become watery, 
and there is intolerance of the light, drowsiness, 
great heat of skin, a frequent and hard pulse. 
Headache and pain in the back frequently occur, 
also nausea, with retching. The eruption appears 
on the fourth day usually, sometimes a day or two 
later. It consists of little dots, and resembles flea 
bites. These gradually run together into small 
blotches, which are semicircular in shape and of a 
red color, and rough to the touch. These points 
do not become pimples, as they contain no fluid. 
The rash appears first on the forehead and ex¬ 
tends downward. It begins to disappear on the 
seventh day. The fever does not abate on ap¬ 
pearance of the rash, as in small-pox. 

With proper treatment, measles is not a dan¬ 
gerous disease, unless the patient’s system is very 
foul, in which case there would be an aggravation 
of all the symptoms, and especially of the chest 
and throat difficulty. The eruption would be of 
a dark color and appear earlier, often receding 
and re-appearing. The last form is known as 
black measles, or malignant measles. 

Treatment. —In the mild or red form, give 
two or three cool or tepid packs each day until 
the fever subsides. Large wet cloths frequently 
spread over the patient’s body and limbs will an¬ 
swer as well if the fever is slight. Tepid water 
only should be applied after the eruption appears. 

If the eruption is suddenly repelled, a hot pack 
should be given immediately. Free the bowels 
with a warm enema. Keep the room moderately 
warm, but well ventilated. If there is much 
soreness in the throat or much inflammation in 


SCARLET FEVER. 


87 


the lungs, apply hot fomentations over the parts 
twice each day for thirty minutes, alternating the 
hot cloth with a cold one every five minutes. 
The black or malignant variety should be treated 
precisely like putrid fever, which see. 

SCARLET FEVER—SCARLATINA. 

This is a contagious disease which makes its 
appearance in from four to six days after the con¬ 
tagious poison has been received into the system. 
It seldom occurs more than once. 

This fever is attended through some part of its 
course by a rash and by a sore throat, these being 
the two main features of the disease. When the 
rash and the sore throat are both well developed, 
the disease is called scarlatina anginosa. In 
other cases, there is a very marked development 
of the rash, with but little or no affection of the 
throat, and is known as scarlatina simplex. In 
still other cases, the throat is very seriously af¬ 
fected, when the disease is known as scarlatina 
maligna, and as putrid sore throat. 

Symptoms. —This disease commences the same 
as any ordinary fever, with the exception that 
there is a soreness in the throat, the pulse is fre¬ 
quent, the skin soon becomes hot, and the patient 
finds it difficult to swallow, and is restless and 
wandering at times. The eruption usually ap¬ 
pears on the second day in the form of number¬ 
less bright red points, first on the neck and arms, 
then on the body, and lastly on the legs. The 
eruption may all come out in one day, though it 
is usually two or three days reaching its hight. 
The mucous membrane of the mouth and throat 
becomes inflamed, and, in the malignant form, 


88 


TREATMENT OF DISEASE. 


very much ulcerated, or even putrid. The tongue 
is white, with red points projecting through the 
white portion like seeds in a strawberry. The tip 
and edges of the tongue are red. The soreness 
of the throat and stiffness of the neck are about 
the first symptoms. 

In the malignant form, the eruption is dark- 
colored, the pulse is feeble, the skin is cold, and 
the throat extremely sore, the patient being 
scarcely able to breathe. When treated with 
drugs, the disease, especially if of the malignant 
form, very often proves fatal; and of those who 
recover, the most are affected for life with some 
chronic difficulty, said to be a sequela of the 
fever, but in reality of the drugs, for no such 
sequela ever occurs when treated as directed 
here, neither is it a fatal disease in the majority 
of cases. 

Treatment.— In the mild form, this disease 
should be treated according to directions for sim¬ 
ple fever and the treatment of fever in general. 
The throat, however, should be wrapped about 
with a cold compress, using ice in the water, 
if it can be obtained. In the malignant form, 
if the fever is high, the cool pack or cool bath 
should be constantly applied until the heat is 
reduced, or it may be reduced by applying warm 
or even hot applications, as the water evaporates 
more rapidly. The feet must be kept warm at 
all times. The hot bath at 105° may be given 
two or three times a day for fifteen or twenty 
minutes at a time at the commencement of the 
disease. Very hot fomentations, alternated every 
five minutes with ice-cold compresses should be 
applied to the throat every hour for a half hour 
at a time, with ice water In the throat at all oth- 


ERYSIPELAS. 


89 


or times, until the fever is subdued and the sore¬ 
ness in the throat is relieved. Ice may be eaten 
and sips of ice water taken freely. In other 
respects, treat simple scarlatina as simple fever, 
and malignant scarlatina as putrid fever. 

ERYSIPELAS. 

There are two varieties of this disease, the red 
and the black, the former occurring in persons 
whose habits are not gross, the latter, in those 
who live grossly and whose blood and flesh are 
filled with impurities. 

No part of the surface of the body is exempt 
from this affection, but the skin of the head and 
face are most subject to it. In cases which arise 
from wounds, the erysipelas commences at or 
around the seat of the injury. 

Symptoms. —This disease is ushered in with 
the symptoms of an ordinary fever, sore throat 
being an early and frequent accompaniment of it. 
On the second or third morning after the chill, 
redness and swelling appear on some part of the 
skin, frequently on one side of the nose, spread¬ 
ing to the rest of the face, and often extending 
over the scalp, neck, and shoulders. The face 
soon becomes so swollen that the eyes close, and 
all traces of the natural features are lost. There 
is more or less general fever, with excessive heat 
in the inflamed part. 

In the red or mild variety, the inflamed part is 
of a florid or bright-red color, while in the black 
or putrid variety, it is of a livid or dark bluish- 
red color. 

Treatment. —Give the patient two or three 

Treat. Dis. () 


90 


TREATMENT OF DISEASE. 


warm or tepid packs daily until the heat is re¬ 
duced. The bowels should be freed at the outset 
of the disease by a warm enema. The patient 
should be allowed to drink freely of cold water, 
and must occupy a well-ventilated room. 

Hot fomentations, alternated with cold com¬ 
presses every five or eight minutes, should be ap¬ 
plied for thirty minutes to the swollen parts 
three or four times each day. In the putrid 
form, tepid wet cloths, or tepid spongings, may 
be applied to the body constantly until the fever 
is reduced, instead of so many packs. For diet, 
see Diet for the Sick. 

NEURALGIA. 

Persons affected with chronic disease, especial¬ 
ly dyspepsia, are liable to have pain in the nerves, 
yet the disease that occasions the pain may be 
remote from the seat of the pain. Facial neural¬ 
gia, is generally occasioned by decayed teeth, 
which should be removed. 

Neuralgia in the abdomen or loins is generally 
occasioned by inflammation or displacement of the 
pelvic organs. 

Sciatica very often results from pressure upon 
some part of the nerve, such as is produced by 
accumulation of hardened faeces within the lower 
bowel, or from inflammation of the sheath of the 
nerve, or from overwork, exposure to cold and 
wet, and occasionally from rheumatism. 

Treatment.— When the neuralgic pains are 
severe, a hot fomentation should be applied to 
the part for a few minutes, after which, it should 
be alternated with the cold compress every eight 
minutes for a half hour. 


LOCAL DISEASES. 


91 


In treating sciatica, the hot sitz-bath or hot 
fomentations, followed by cold compresses or the 
cold douche to the part, will give relief. Drip¬ 
ping-sheets, spray-batlis, or the hose-douche are 
all applicable. In all neuralgic affections the gen¬ 
eral health must be attended to, and every local 
difficulty remedied by proper treatment. 

LOCAL DISEASES. 

Under this head will be presented those dis¬ 
eases whose primary seat is in some special organ 
or part of the body. These diseases may be 
either acute or chronic. In the acute form, the 
disease is rapid and the symptoms prominent. 
In the chronic form, the disease is of the same 
nature as in the acute, but it develops itself much 
more slowly and its symptoms are much less 
marked. 

If it were possible to gather all of the symp¬ 
toms, pains, and aches, which occur in a few 
months in a chronic disease, and condense them, 
we would find them equal in amount and sever¬ 
ity to those that would occur in a few days in 
the acute form of the disease. 

In treating acute diseases, we should be prompt 
and energetic in adopting measures that will give 
immediate relief and check the violence of the 
disease. But in treating chronic diseases, great 
perseverance will be required, as the treatment, 
to be successful, has to be directed to equalizing 
the circulation, relieving internal congestion, 
forming new habits, and, as it were, building the 
body anew; and all of this requires time. As a 
general rule, there is no difficulty in treating 


92 


TREATMENT OF DISEASE. 


acute diseases successfully at home; the patient, 
beino; unable to work or have care, dismisses all 
business but that of getting well, consequently 
receives the full benefit of the treatment. 

In chronic difficulties, the case is different. 
The patient is able to do some work, and seeing 
enough to be done, either works so much that 
the treatment does no good, or worries because 
the work is improperly done by others, or because 
it is neglected. The result is the same in either 
case, as the patient can derive little or no benefit 
from treatment taken under such circumstances. 

Such being the facts, the very best thing any 
chronic invalid can do will be to go to a hygienic 
institute and take treatment for a while. In 
most cases, three or four months’ stay at a good 
health institution will be sufficient to effect a cure. 

INFLAMMATION OF THE BRAIN. 

In this disease, the membranes only may be in¬ 
flamed, which is generally the case, or the sub¬ 
stance of the brain only, or both. So far as treat¬ 
ment is concerned, it matters not which part is 
inflamed, for the treatment is the same in either 
case. 

This disease is essentially the same as that al¬ 
ready described as brain fever, the only difference 
being that in this there is less inflammation and 
less fever, consequently the symptoms are less 
violent. 

Treatment.— See Brain Fever, and treat as 
there directed. 


CONGESTION OF THE IiRAIN. 


93 


CONGESTION OF THE BRAIN. 

This may be acute or chronic. It consists in a 
rush of blood to the various organs within the 
skull. It is always accompanied with a sense of 
fullness and pain. If unattended to, the conges¬ 
tion may lead to serious consequences, such as a 
leakage of the watery portion of the blood from 
the small blood-vessels and capillaries, thereby 
causing dropsy of the brain—hydrocephalus. Or 
it may lead to brain fever or apoplexy, by the 
leakage of blood. 

Cause.— Congestion of the brain may be caused 
by anything that unbalances the circulation, 
such as exposure to sudden heat or cold, improper 
food, impure air, cold feet, constipated bowels, an 
overloaded stomach, undigested food retained in 
the stomach, or by prolonged brain labor. 

Treatment. —Remove the cause, if in the stom¬ 
ach, by warm-water emetics ; if in the bowels, by 
enemas; if it is caused by excessive or prolonged, 
mental labor, take exercise in the open air. If 
caused by a recent cold, take a hot sitz and foot¬ 
bath, followed by a dripping-sheet. If the disease 
has become chronic, take a warm sitz and foot¬ 
bath daily or every other day, for five or eight 
minutes, at 92° or 95°, then cool the water to 80° 
and continue the bath for three minutes. Wet the 
head with cold water before taking the bath. In 
many cases, hot fomentations applied to the head 
and alternated with cold every five or eight min¬ 
utes, for a half hour, will give relief. 


94 


TREATMENT OF DISEASE. 


DROPSY OF THE HEAD-HYDRO¬ 
CEPHALUS. 

This is a slow inflammation of the membranes 
of the brain in which water is thrown out into 
the ventricles—cavities—of the brain, and into 
the spaces between its convolutions or folds. 
The head frequently becomes enormously large, 
the bones separating to make room for the en¬ 
largement. It is a disease of childhood. 

Symptoms. —Sometimes this disease exists at 
birth: if not, the symptoms will be manifest 
about the sixth month. The child may take its 
food regularly, yet it does not thrive, and in a 
few weeks after the dropsy sets in its body is 
much wasted, the head appears large, the face 
small, the forehead prominent and heavy, the 
eyes protrude and are directed downward. The 
child is irritable and feverish, and manifests a 
dislike to light and noise. It has headache and 
nausea, and its faeces are dark-colored and offen¬ 
sive, and it has frequent pain in the abdomen. 

Treatment.— Nothing can save the child un¬ 
less the disease is detected early, and the treat¬ 
ment commenced immediately. Keep the bowels 
free with enemas, and by frequently rubbing and 
kneading them. Give a tepid sponge-bath daily; 
keep the room well ventilated, and give the child 
a nourishing diet. Apply cool water to the head 
daily by pouring it from a pitcher or by bathing 
it with a sponge. Keep the extremities always 
warm. Let the child sleep soundly at night. 


APOPLEXY. 


95 


APOPLEXY. 

This word signifies a fit of sudden insensibil¬ 
ity. There is a complete loss, for the time, of all 
consciousness and sensation, and all power of 
voluntary motion. 

Causes. —Whatever induces congestion of the 
brain may cause it, for the insensibility is caused 
by pressure on the brain. Intoxicating liquors, 
tobacco, opium, great heat or cold, sudden excite¬ 
ment, blows or injuries on the head—any of these 
may occasion the disease, especially if the person 
is plethoric or full-blooded, such persons being 
peculiarly liable to it. This disease resembles 
drunkenness and narcotic poisoning. In drunk¬ 
enness, the smell of alcohol is always present, and 
it may be in apoplexy if the patient indulges in 
its use. The habits of the patient, if known, as 
they certainly will be in the home circle, will as¬ 
sist in making out the character of the disease. 

Treatment Preventive. —A person who has 
a tendency to apoplexy must avoid all excite¬ 
ment and over-exertion, all stimulating sub¬ 
stances, extremes of temperature, straining at 
stool, tight neck-ties, and hot baths. He must 
partake of food sparingly, sleep on a mattress 
with the head elevated, and in a cool and well- 
ventilated room. He should take moderate ex¬ 
ercise daily in the open air, and should keep his 
bowels free. The head should be bathed daily 
with cool or cold water. When dizziness, head¬ 
ache, throbbing of the temples, or nose-bleed oc¬ 
curs, he should abstain from food for one or two 
meals. Such are preventive measures. 

Treatment Curative. —As soon as the fit oc¬ 
curs, place the patient in a sitting posture, loosen 


9G TREATMENT OF DISEASE. 

all the garments about the neck and chest; place 
hot wet blankets about the feet, limbs, and abdo¬ 
men, and renew the heat frequently; place 
pounded ice in a bladder or a bag on the head, 
or pour cold water on the head for twenty min¬ 
utes several times a day, until consciousness re- 

Til vn Q 

SUN-STROKE. 

This disease is similar to apoplexy. It usually 
follows exposure to the direct rays of the sun in 
a hot day. 

Symptoms.— Faintness, thirst, great heat, dry¬ 
ness of the skin, with prostration. Dizziness is 
frequently complained of, also a sense of tight¬ 
ness across the chest. The action of the heart 
soon becomes violent, and the patient sinks into 
a state of insensibility. 

Treatment.—T he same as in apoplexy. 

INSANITY. 

This disease is one of the most distressing to 
contemplate of any to which flesh is heir. It is 
unnecessary to enter into a detailed account of 
the many varieties or modifications of the dis¬ 
ease. It consists in a functional or organic dis- 
ease of the gray matter of the brain, which man¬ 
ifests itself in a derangement of the mental func¬ 
tions, so that the patient perceives and thinks un¬ 
reasonably. The disease may exist in any de¬ 
gree of intensity from a very slight departure 
from sanity to total aberration of all the percep¬ 
tive and intellectual faculties. 

Treatment.— This disease should be treated 
early to insure the recovery of the patient. 

The patient should have a diet of the best 


HEADACHE. 


97 


and most wholesome articles of food in good va¬ 
riety. He should not be crossed in his whims, 
nor contended with, neither should he bo con¬ 
fined, nor should mechanical or physical force be 
used unless he be violent or dangerous. On the 
contrary, he should be humored when not incom¬ 
patible with moral principle. He should have 
warm clothing, out-door occupation, amuse¬ 
ments, sound sleep at night, and his bowels 
should be kept free. Attention should be paid 
to prevent the exercise of bad habits, secret vice, 
etc. A constant effort should be made to pro¬ 
mote cheerfulness. The warm bath in any form 
should be given two or three times a week; fol¬ 
lowed by the cold douche or cold dripping-sheet. 
If the patient is weak, give a tepid bath, followed 
by a cool douche. If the patient is strong, he 
may take a hot-air or vapor-bath once a week in 
addition to the above. The cool or cold head- 
bath should be taken daily, and the feet should 
be always warm. Occasional wet-sheet-packs in 
place of any of the above baths would be service¬ 
able. In many of the States, the public asylums 
are so conducted that those who cannot be re¬ 
strained at home would fare better, and have a 
better chance to recover there, than if treated at 
home. 


HEADACHE. 

This may be caused by inflammation of the 
brain or its membranes (see under head of Brain 
Fever, and Inflammation of the Brain), or it may 
be caused by plethora (see Plethora), or by errors 
in diet, or the use of tea, coffee, tobacco, and stim¬ 
ulating drinks, or by hunger, or constipation. 


93 


TREATMENT OF DISEASE. 


Treatment.— Remove the cause, correct the 
habits, and treat as directed for chronic conges¬ 
tion of the brain. 

VERTIGO, OR DIZZINESS. 

In advanced life, this difficulty, if frequent, is 
symptomatic of disease of the brain in its first 
stages. It may, however, be caused by poison in 
the system, such as tobacco, alcoholic liquors, 
opium, or by some irritation of the stomach, or 
of the intestines, or some disturbance of the liver, 
or kidneys, or of the heart, or, in women, by 
uterine hemorrhage. It is also caused by sexual 
excesses. 

Treatment. —This will depend somewhat on 
the cause, which must be ascertained and re¬ 
moved if possible. If it is caused by any wrong 
habit, that habit must be corrected. The cause 
is some local disease, such as disease of the liver, 
etc. Treat the local disease as directed under 
proper heading. The general treatment is the 
same as for headache and congestion of the brain, 
which see. 

ACUTE INFLAMMATION OF THE EAR. 

Symptoms. —Heat, pain, and irritation of the 
external ear, if that is the inflamed part. 

Treatment.— Hot fomentations, followed by a 
cold compress, and a hot sitz-bath and foot-bath 
followed by a cool bath in connection with the 
fomentation. 

If the internal ear is inflamed, there will be a 
distressing sense of fullness, painful throbbing, 
general nervousness, and deep-seated pain; loud 
noises are heard at times. If the inflammation 


EARACHE. 


99 


is not checked, the eyes become red, delirium sets 
in, followed by fever of typhoid character; sup¬ 
puration soon follows, which usually destroys the 
hearing. 

Treatment.— The same as above, and in addi¬ 
tion, the patient should fast for a short time, and 
the cold head-bath should be freely used, until 
the heat in the head is subdued. The accompa¬ 
nying fever should be treated as directed in Gen¬ 
eral Treatment of Fever. 

CHRONIC INFLAMMATION OF THE EAR. 

Symptoms.— A prolonged discharge from the 
ear. 

Cause.— Scrofula, maltreated eruptive fever of 
any kind, etc. 

Treatment.— In treating all forms of foul dis¬ 
charges from the ears, first attend to the general 
health. The food must be free from all grease, 
butter, salt, vinegar, and condiments of all kinds. 
It should be composed of a good variety of fruits, 
grains, and vegetables, cooked in the most whole¬ 
some manner. Derivative and tonic baths should 
be administered three times a week. These 
should consist of the dripping-sheet, the half-bath, 
or sitz-bath, or the spray-bath, or packs. The 
patient’s body should be daily rubbed with the 
dry hand. 


EARACHE. 

This difficulty may be caused by inflammation, 
or by insects or some foreign substance within the 
ear, or it may be a nervous affection. 

Treatment.— Foreign [substances may be re¬ 
moved from the car by holding the head in such 


100 TREATMENT OF DISEASE. 

a position that the affected ear is downward, then 
with a small syringe inject warm water into the 
ear. In other cases, it may be necessary to re¬ 
move the substance with forceps. Vermin or in¬ 
sects in the ear may be destroyed by introducing 
soap suds containing a drop of carbolic acid to a 
table spoonful of water, or the ear may be filled 
with sweet oil, and the vermin will slip out. If 
the pain continues, give either the sitz-bath, the 
hot-air-batli or vapor-bath, and a hot fomentation 
over the ear. 

INFLAMMATION OF THE EYES. 

The eyes are subject to a variety of diseases, 
most of which may be comprehended in the word 
inflammation. This may be acute or chronic. 
This inflammation may result in granulated lids, 
purulent discharges, specks and opacities, ulcers, 
tumors, and partial or total blindness. 

Treatment.— In acute inflammation, keep the 
eye shaded from the light, but allow it a free cir¬ 
culation of air. Apply fomentations, followed by 
cold compresses once a day, and frequent cold 
applications daily or until the inflammation is sub¬ 
dued. Treat the attending fever the same as fevers 
in general. Keep the feet warm. In the chronic 
form, treat the patient constitutionally. See Con¬ 
stitutional Treatment. Bathe the eyes frequent¬ 
ly in tepid water, and once or twice a week 
apply hot fomentations alternated with cold. 
There may be cases in which it may be nec¬ 
essary to remove the granulations with caus¬ 
tics, but this should be avoided if possible, 
and should only be done by an oculist. If hairs 


THE SPINAL MARROW. 


101 


growing inward cause the inflammation, they 
must be extracted. 

INFLAMMATION OF THE MEMBRANES 
OF THE SPINAL CORD. 

Acute inflammation of the membranes of the 
spinal cord seldom occurs ; but when it does, it 
may be known by an acute burning pain along 
the spine extending into the limbs. This pain is 
similar to rheumatism, and is aggravated by mo¬ 
tion or pressure. There is always a high fever, 
with sleeplessness. After a little, the muscles of 
the neck and back become permanently con- . 
tr acted. 

Treatment.— Apply heat and cold alternately 
to the spine as in giving fomentations, and treat 
the fever as directed for fevers in general. 

INFLAMMATION OF THE SPINAL 

MARROW. 

When the spinal marrow becomes inflamed, 
some form of paralysis follows. If the upper 
part of that portion within the skull is inflamed, 
there is deep-seated headache, convulsive move¬ 
ments of the head and face, inarticulate speech, 
spasmodic closure of the mouth, difficulty in swal¬ 
lowing, spasmodic breathing, and paralysis of one 
side of the body, or of the upper half of one side. 
When the inflammation is in that portion of the 
spinal cord that is within the neck, there will be 
acute pain in the back of the neck, shortness of 
breath, difficulty in swallowing, impossibility of 
raising or supporting the head, a prickling sensa¬ 
tion in the hands, and paralysis of the upper ex¬ 
tremities. 


102 


TREATMENT OF DISEASE. 


When that portion of the cord within the up¬ 
per portion of the back above the attachment of 
the lowest ribs, is inflamed, there is pain in that 
portion, and numbness or prickling sensations in 
the fingers and toes, convulsive movements of the 
trunk of the body with paralysis of the arms and 
lower extremities, short and laborious respira¬ 
tion, palpitation, etc. 

If the inflammation is in that portion within 
the small of the back, there is pain there, and also 
in the abdomen, with a sense of tightness as of a 
cord drawn tightly around it. There will be 
convulsive spasms, or paralysis of the bladder 
and lower bowel, causing retention of urine and 
faeces at times, or they will be voided involunta¬ 
rily. There is also severe paralysis of the lower 
extremities. The pain in the affected part of the 
cord in this disease is less severe than in inflam¬ 
mation of the membranes of the cord. The pain 
is increased by the application of heat to the 
part and by firm pressure. The loss of sensation 
in the palsied limbs is complete. 

Treatment.— Apply ice water or ice to the 
spine, or, if the severity of the pain will permit, 
apply hot fomentations alternated with ice-cold 
compresses. Pounded ice in a bladder is the best 
way to apply cold to the spine, unless rubber 
bags can be procured. Give hot foot and leg 
baths to draw the blood to those parts, and treat 
the fever, if there is any, the same as though it 
were the only disease. This disease is usually 
caused by exposure to cold or damp, or by 
wounds and bruises. A slight decree of inflam- 
mation, or severe inflammation in a small part of 
the cord may arise from a sudden jar of the cord, 
produced by a fall, or by jumping. Whenever 


PARALYSIS. 


103 


from any cause the spinal cord gives evidence of 
injury by severe or heavy pain in the cord that 
is caused by wounds or jars, the patient should 
immediately retire and apply a hot fomentation 
for ten minutes followed by cold applications 
for twenty or thirty minutes. He should then 
take a warm half-bath daily and keep the feet 
warm. 

PARALYSIS. 

This may be confined to a single set of mus¬ 
cles, or it may extend to a part of the body, or 
to one-half of it, or even to the entire body. 

The paralysis is symptomatic of some difficul¬ 
ty with the spinal cord, or brain, or both. As 
already shown, inflammation of the cord or brain 
may occasion paralysis, so also may lack of blood 
or nourishment in the cord. 

Treatment.— In recent cases, if the paralysis 
is caused by inflammation of the cord, treat as 
directed under head of Inflammation of Spinal 
Cord. In paralysis that has come on slowly, or 
that is of long standing, give the patient nourish¬ 
ing diet, an airy bedroom, plenty of sunshine or 
sun-baths, and give the Swedish movements, 
which consist in passing the limb or body through 
all its natural motions, and in kneading and roll¬ 
ing the flesh under the hand, percussing it with 
the edges of the hand, or slapping it with the 
flat of the hand. Electric-baths, shower-baths, 
dripping-sheets, spray-baths and cool sponge- 
baths, may any of them be used three times a 
week. The surface and extremities must always 
be kept warm. 

All paralytic patients should resort to a first- 
class health institute, such as the one in Battle 


104 


TREATMENT OF DISEASE. 


Creek, Michigan, as soon as they are paralyzed. 
Only about one in five can be cured under any 
system of treatment. 

CONVULSIONS. 

Convulsions are symptomatic of disease of the 
brain, spinal cord, and nerve centers. The real 
disease may be any condition which suddenly ar¬ 
rests the nutrition of the brain, cord, or nerve cen¬ 
ters, such as hemorrhage within the skull or spi¬ 
nal column, a blow on the head, loss of blood, a 
stoppage of the circulation of the blood, strangu¬ 
lation, or want of air to purify the blood, impure 
blood, a needle or pin pricking the flesh, the 
presence of indigestible food in the stomach, 
worms in the intestines, teething in children, or 
a continued diarrhea. 

Treatment.— To bring the child out of the 
spasm, set it in a shallow cool or tepid bath, and 
Avith the hand apply cold water to the spine, or 
set it in a cold bath and apply cold to the spine. 
If undigested food in the stomach is the cause 
of the convulsions, give a warm-water emetic. 
If worms are the cause, give a more wholesome 
diet. Free the boAvels from worms (see under 
head of Worms), and then treat as directed un¬ 
der head of Constitutional Treatment. If the 
convulsions are caused by teething, gh-e the 
child something hard to bite, like an ivory or 
rubber ring, and treat constitutionally. 

The garments should always be loosened and 
all the clothing about the neck removed as soon 
as the compulsion comes on. When it cannot be 
definitely ascertained of A\diat disease the convul¬ 
sion is a symptom, it may be taken for granted 


HYSTERIA. 


105 


that the constitutional vigor of the person is at 
fault, and the treatment should be constitutional 
as albovo directed. 

EPILEPSY. 

The causes of this disease are nearly the same 
as the preceding. We might add, however, the 
following: defective organization, a malformed 
head, injury of the head, debauchery and drunk¬ 
enness, sexual excesses, and the poisoning of the 
blood by medicines given in treating acute rheu¬ 
matism, scarlet fever, and various other diseases 
allopathically. 

Treatment.— During the fit, lay the patient 
on the floor, and loosen the clothing about the 
throat. Nothing more is required. After the 
spasms have ceased, let the patient sleep as long 
as he is inclined to. During the interval, the 
patient must have constitutional treatment. See 
Constitutional Treatment. 

HYSTERIA. 

This disease is caused by anything that im¬ 
pairs the nervous organism. It occurs in both 
males and females, but most frequently in females, 
beginning at, or soon after, puberty, and in many 
cases continuing through life. The chief cause of 
hysteria is vacancy of mind, that is, want of oc¬ 
cupation. Those persons who have an object in 
life, something to accomplish, are generally too 
much occupied to have hysteric fits, while those 
who have nothing to do or to think of except 
self, soon induce a morbid condition of mind that 
manifests itself in hysteria. 

Treat. Dis. 7 


105 TREATMENT OF DISEASE. 

Symptoms. —Convulsive movement of the body 
and limbs, violent beating of the breasts, tearing 
the hair or garments, violent agitation, shrieks, 
and a sensation as of a ball rising upward from 
some part of the body to the throat, causing suf¬ 
focation and convulsions. The attack ends with 
tears or convulsive outbreaks of crying or laugh¬ 
ter. This disease does not always manifest the 
same symptoms. 

Treatment.— To bring the patient out of the 
fit, apply cold water to the head and spine. To 
prevent the return of the fit, keep the patient’s 
mind so occupied that self will be forgotten. 
Give constitutional treatment. 

SLEEPLESSNESS. 

Sleeplessness is simply over-activity of the 
brain. Wakefulness or disturbed slumber may 
be caused by care, trouble, overwork, late suppers, 
indigestible food, reading or hearing exciting sto¬ 
ries, especially in the evening, and by occupying 
the mind with business matters in the evening 

O 

or latter part of the day. 

Treatment.— Eat no hearty meal in the after 
part of the day, neither read nor allow the mind 
to become excited, nor contemplate any sad or 
melancholy theme, nor transact or think about 
any business in the latter part of the day or eve¬ 
ning. Retire to rest at a regular hour, in a quiet 
and well-ventilated room. Do not sleep on 
feathers, but use a mattress instead. Do not sleep 
under too many bedclothes, and have no curtains 
about the bed. In the evening, take a bath for 
three or five minutes at from 92° to 98°; wipe 
dry, and retire immediately. Or take a tepid 


CATARRH. 


107 


sponge-batli, or a warm foot-bath, or place a bot¬ 
tle of hot water to the feet on retiring. Any¬ 
thing that will draw the blood away from the 
brain will induce sleep, therefore a cold, wet 
head-cap is useful, especially if the head aches. 

A sitz-bath at 98° or 100°, for ten minutes, just 
before retiring, or a hot fomentation applied the 
entire length of the spine, for fifteen minutes, 
will often induce sleep. In case the patient is 
dyspeptic and is kept awake by indigestion, ap¬ 
ply the hot fomentations over the stomach for a 
few minutes after retiring. 

CATARRH. 

This disease consists of an inflammation of the 
air passages. It may be confined to the nostrils 
and cavities connecting with them, or to the wind- 
pipe, or it may extend down into the smaller air 
tubes in the lungs. This disease is more common 
than any other. It arises from too sudden change 
of atmospheric temperature, or from exposure to 
wet and cold when the strength is exhausted. 
Catarrh is simply a common cold. It may be 
acute or chronic. If acute, there will be a run¬ 
ning at the nose, and if the windpipe is impli¬ 
cated, there will be more or less irritation or sore¬ 
ness in the inflamed part of the windpipe, and a 
cough more or less violent. 

In chronic catarrh of the head, the fluids that 
are thrown out are quite thick and viscid, and of 
a yellow or greenish color. This dries in the 
nostrils, or passes backward into the throat, or 
both of these events may occur. 

Tkeatment.— If the catarrh is recent, take any 
form of a hot bath once or twice a day, and ab- 


108 


TREATMENT OR DISEASE. 


stain from food for one or two meals, or eat very 
sparingly for a few days. In the chronic form, 
live on a strictly hygienic diet, eat two meals a 
day regularly, and no more, and follow the di¬ 
rections given for constitutional treatment. 

INFLUENZA. 

This disease differs from catarrh only in being 
more severe and in being epidemic. 

Symptoms. —Heat, and dryness of the skin, se¬ 
vere frontal headache, a constant running at the 
nose, sneezing, soreness in back part of the mouth 
•—the fauces—hoarseness, a harrassing cough, per¬ 
verted taste, and disordered stomach. 

Treatment.— Give any form of a hot bath, 
followed by a cool bath; or give a hot wet 
woolen sheet pack, or a hot half-pack once a day, 
with cold applications to the chest and throat at 
all other times, or a warm sitz and foot-bath may 
be given daily with a hot fomentation, for twenty 
minutes, followed with cold over the chest and 
throat until the severity of the symptoms is 
over. 


DISEASES OE THE MOUTH. 

Inflammation of the Tongue seldom occurs ex¬ 
cept as a result of taking mercury. Whenever 
the tongue is inflamed, apply ice to it, and give 
warm sitz and foot-baths freely. If suppuration 
occurs,' open the abscess with a sharp knife or 
lancet. 

Ulcers of the Tongue. Treat these by a 
careful and abstemious diet, free from all grease 
and condiments. Use gargles of borax, or cover 
the ulcers with borax and glycerine, or touch 

O %J 


MUMPS. 


109 


them with sulphate of copper (blue vitriol), or 
sulphate of zinc (wdiite vitriol). Gargle hot 
and cold water alternately, and take a warm 
bath daily. 

Canker of the Mouth. Treat the same as 
ulcers. 

Thrush. This disease consists of small, round, 
white, elevated specks or patches scattered over 
the tongue and lining membrane of the mouth. 
It often extends down the oesophagus, or meat- 
pipe, into the stomach, in infants. The treatment 
of thrush should be a tepid bath three times a 
week, tepid injections to free the bowels if they 
are hard or swollen, and small cool injections 
daily, and the cool abdominal girdle may be worn 
if there is a diarrhea. 

Decayed Teeth. Have these filled with metal 
without delay. Patronize none but responsible 
dentists, if you wish the work well done. To 
prevent decay and preserve your teeth, use no 
hot food, or hot drinks, and eat no ice-creams or 
other frozen food. Use graham bread and crack¬ 
ers. The more hard food there is eaten, the 
harder and stronger the teeth will become. The 
food should be thoroughly masticated. 

Toothache. The hot foot-bath or sitz-bath will 
often give relief. Sometimes it is necessary to 
apply hot fomentations to the face and the teeth. 
The hot-air cr vapor-bath will give relief. 

MUMPS. 

This disease consists in an inflammation of the 
parotid glands. These glands are situated on 
either side of the head, immediately in front of, 
and below, the ear. 


110 


TREATMENT OF DISEASE. 


Symptoms. —At first, there is a slight disturb¬ 
ance, as though a very mild fever was about to 
set in. This is accompanied by soreness and 
swelling of one or both of these glands. The 
swelling usually extends from beneath the ear, 
along the neck, to the chin. The submaxillary 
glands—situated under the lower jaw just in 
front of the angle of the jaw—also become in¬ 
flamed and swollen. The inflammation reaches 
its hight in four days. As the inflammation sub¬ 
sides, it is not uncommon for the mammary 
glands—the breasts—or the testicles to become 
painful and swollen. 

Treatment. —All that is required is a spare 
diet, with an occasional tepid or warm bath. 
The dripping-sheet, sitz-bath, spray-bath, half or 
full bath, or the wet-sheet-pack, may any of them 
be given. If the throat is very painful, hot fo¬ 
mentations alternated with cold compresses every 
five or eight minutes for thirty minutes should be 
applied. Hot poultices will often give relief. If 
inflammation of the breasts or of the testicles oc¬ 
cur, treat in the same manner. 

DISEASES OF THE THROAT. 

Inflammation of the Tonsils. This difficulty 
is known as quinsy and tonsilitis. It is common 
inflammatory sore throat. It is ushered in by 
chilliness, followed by fever. The upper part of 
the throat will be red and swollen, the sides of 
the entrance to the throat being very much 
swollen and frequently ulcerated. In some cases, 
the fever is very high, the tongue coated, and 
there is an abundant discharge of sticky saliva. 
If the inflammation is long continued, one or 


DISEASES OF THE THROAT. 


Ill 


both of the tonsils—two glands situated on either 
side of the entrance to the throat—suppurate. 
They should then be lanced. 

Treatment. —Free the bowels with an enema 
of warm water, and give a tepid pack for a half 
hour. 

If the fever is high, treat as directed for simple 
fever. The special local treatment consists in the 
frequent application of ice-cold water to the 
throat inside and out, with a, hot fomentation 
once or twice a day, followed by the immediate 
application of cold water. The hot foot-bath will 
give relief. 

DLptheria. This disease frequently commences 
very gradually. The patient is depressed, weak, 
has headache, nausea, slight diarrhea, and drowsi¬ 
ness. The neck is stiff for several hours before 
the throat becomes sore. Then the tonsils and 
inside of throat become inflamed and of a dark 
color. The palate becomes so swollen that the 
patient cannot swallow without pain. There is 
next seen on the mucous membrane of the nar¬ 
row parts of the upper portion of the throat, ash- 
colored specks which gradually enlarge and join 
together, forming a false membrane known as the 
diptheretic membrane. This membrane thickens 
as the disease progresses. Death may occur from 
hemorrhage, suffocation, or exhaustion. 

Treatment. —The patient should at the outset 
of the disease be placed in a hot sitz and foot¬ 
bath, with hot fomentations to the throat at the 
same time. Ice or ice water should at all other 
times be constantly applied to the throat exter¬ 
nally, and sips of ice water containing bits of ice 
should be taken every few minutes. When ice 
can be held in the back part of the mouth, it is 


112 


TREATMENT OF DISEASE. 


proper to do so. The hot bath should be given 
twice a day, and the ice applied constantly until 
the soreness leaves the throat. Treat the fever 
by giving two or three tepid packs a day for 
ten or fifteen minutes. 


CEOUP. 

This disease, which results from a cold, is one 
to which infants and small children are subject. 
It consists in an inflammation of the windpipe, 
and the formation thereby of a peculiar mem¬ 
brane which, in fatal cases, sloughs off and suffo¬ 
cates the child. 

Symptoms. —At first, the child has ringing 
cough, such as accompanies a common cold. In 
a few hours there is a shrill whistling or crowing 
sound produced as the child draws in its breath 
after a spasmodic effort at coughing. If the in¬ 
flammation is not speedily checked, the child 
dies of suffocation. Apply cold compresses to 
the throat, using ice or ice water if it can be had 
without delay. If this is not successful, the 
child should be placed in a bath as hot as can 
be borne, and remain for from five to fifteen 
minutes according to its condition. On leav¬ 
ing the bath, ice, or ice water or cold water 
should be again applied to its throat continu¬ 
ously. Its feet and legs must be kept warm and 
its head cool. If the cold application does not 
check the difficulty in the course of an hour, ap¬ 
ply the hot fomentation to the throat for ten 
minutes, then cold for five minutes. Repeat the 
process two or three times. 


GOITER. 


113 


CHOKING. 

This is frequently caused by the lodgement of 
food or other substances within the meatpipe— 
the oesophagus. If the mouth is opened widely 
and the tongue extended, the substance can gen¬ 
erally be seen lodged above the glottis. It may 
be removed with pinchers, or with a hook, or it 
may be pried out of its place with the handle of 
a spoon or a similar instrument. Failing to do 
this, if the patient is suffocating, the substance 
may be pushed down into the stomach with a 
smooth, round-ended rod or whalebone. If the 
foreign substance has been inhaled, and is lodged 
within the air passages, there will be at first a 
violent spasmodic cough, difficult breathing, and 
a sense of impending suffocation. After a few 
minutes, the violence of the first symptoms 
abates for a time. The cough and difficulty of 
breathing return at intervals however. 

Treatment.— When the substance is lodged 
in the upper part of the throat, and while the 
coughing continues, the clogging substance may 
often be removed by turning the head down and 
the feet up, and percussing the back. If it is 
within the windpipe, send for a good surgeon, 
who will remove it with the knife, if necessary. 

GOITER. 

This is simply an enlargement of the thyroid 
gland, which becomes, in some instances, so en- 
larged as to cause the neck to measure upward 
of two feet in circumference. The swelling is 
usually unaccompanied with pain, and causes little 
inconvenience. In some cases, however, the press- 


114 


TREATMENT OF DISEASE. 


ure on the veins, arteries, and other organs of the 
neck, causes uncomfortable sensations. 

This disease is caused by drinking hard water 
or water containing lime, magnesia, or other 
earthy substances, and by breathing impure air, 
living in the shade, and other unhygienic habits. 

Treatment. —The first thing to be done in 
treating this difficulty is to supply the patient 
with pure soft water to drink (filtered rain water 
is the best), and a plain, nourishing diet, free from 
flesh-meats and grease, and let him be much in 
the open air and sunshine. The cold compress, 
or hose-douche, or cold water poured from a 
pitcher, should be applied daily to the part, also 
cold wet-hand rubbing over the tumor. The 
prolonged, tepid sitz-bath should be taken every 
other day. Ice applied for fifteen minutes every 
one or two hours, with a spare diet, will promote 
absorption. 

CLERGYMAN’S SORE THROAT. 

This is a slightly inflamed condition of the 
mucous membrane of the fauces, glottis, and vo¬ 
cal cords. 

Symptoms. —An uneasy sensation in the upper 
part of the throat, with a continued inclination 
to swallow, as if there were some obstacle in the 
way which could be removed by swallowdng it. 
Frequent attempts are made to clear the throat 
by coughing, hawking, and spitting. There is 
also more or less pain in the larynx. The voice 
changes, there is hoarseness, and sometimes to¬ 
ward evening a complete loss of the voice. 

After the difficulty has become chronic, the 
fauces present a slightly raw or granulated sur- 


HAY ASTHMA—HAY FEVER. 


115 


face, and a viscid or sticky mucus mixed with 
pus adheres to the palate at times. 

Causes. —Straining the voice in vociferous 
preaching, lecturing, and singing, or speaking on 
a high key, rich, unwholesome food, with inatten¬ 
tion to the temperature of the feet, and insuffi¬ 
cient ventilation of the sleeping room. 

Treatment Preventive. —Public speakers 
and singers may avoid this difficulty by a strict 
attention to the laws of life. Eat proper food, 
keep the feet warm, never strain the vocal organs 
nor speak in a hurried or excited manner, but 
with moderation. [Bathe the throat frequently 
with cold water, and sleep in a well-ventilated 
room, and take from four to six hours’ exercise 
daily in the open air. 

Treatment Curative. —An abstemious diet of 
plain, wholesome food, with a tepid sitz and foot¬ 
bath for five or eight minutes, followed immedi¬ 
ately by a cool bath for three minutes, twice a 
week, with a dripping-sheet twice a week, also 
a hot fomentation alternated with cold every 
five minutes for thirty minutes applied to the 
throat daily for a few weeks, and a cold com¬ 
press applied to it nights, with proper care of the 
general health, will generally effect a cure. The 
vocal organs must be used properly. Always 
speak in the natural tone. 

KAY ASTHMA—HAY FEVER. 

This disease is a severe catarrh with an asth¬ 
matic affection. It occurs in the summer, and is 
due to peculiar emanations from decaying vege¬ 
tation, in connection with overeating or the use 
of improper food, or, as some suppose, from the 


116 


TREATMENT OF DISEASE. 


emanations from certain grasses, flowers, or weeds. 
The mucous membrane of the eye—the conjunc¬ 
tiva—and of the nostrils and throat and bron¬ 
chial tubes are all somewhat inflamed, and there 
is headache, the eyes are watery, the nose is irri¬ 
tated, and there is frequent sneezing, and a dry, 
hacking cough, with occasional paroxysmal at¬ 
tacks of asthma, which last two or three hours. 
At times, the breathing is so difficult that suffo¬ 
cation appears to be certain. 

Treatment Preventive. —Eat but two meals 
a day, subsist upon a vegetarian diet, and 
eat nothing between meals. If three meals are 
eaten, the last should be very light, and of food 
that is easily digested. Some form of bath should 
be taken three times a week. The sleeping room 
should be thoroughly ventilated night and day. 

Treatment Curative. —Take hot baths of 
any kind until sweating is induced, then wash 
off* with cold water, use cold water freely about 
the head, and occasionally a hot fomentation to 
the head, throat, and chest, alternating with cold 
every eight or ten minutes, and pursue the same 
course as directed above for prevention. 

Sometimes a change of location during that 
period of the year when the patient is subject to 
this difficulty is the only way it can be avoided. 
When this is the case, the patient should visit 
a place free from much vegetation. A location 
with a breeze from the sea or from a large body 
of water would be good. 

WHOOPING-COUGH. 

This disease is too well known to need de¬ 
scription. 


BRONCHITIS. 


117 


Treatment. —Like all contagious diseases, 
whooping-cough will terminate in health as soon 
as the specific poison that occasions it is removed 
from the system. Therefore, all there is to do is 
to nurse the patient properly. The body should 
be at all times at about the same degree of tem¬ 
perature. The child should be well protected by 
warm clothing in cold weather, and the air in its 
room should be of an even temperature night 
and day. The temperature should not rise above 
65° nor fall below 60°. Extremes in the tem¬ 
perature of the room are generally more injuri¬ 
ous than any other one thing in the whooping- 
cough. The diet must be plain, simple, and 
rather spare, yet the child must have sufficient to 
keep him well nourished. Bathe the child three 
times a week in warm water. The form of bath 
is immaterial. Give a hot leg-bath for ten or 
fifteen minutes once or twice a week in addition 
to the other baths ; keep the head cool and the 
extremities warm at all times. One of the best 
methods of treating whooping-cough is to apply 
the cold compress to the chest and hot fomenta¬ 
tions to the spine at the same time. This may 
be done in connection with the above treatment. 
Hot fomentations should be applied over the liver 
two or three times a week. 

BRONCHITIS. 

This disease consists in an inflammation of the 
mucous membrane of the air passages after they 
enter the lungs. It may be acute or chronic. 
Acute bronchitis manifests the same symptoms, 
and requires the same treatment, as pneumonia, 
or lung fever, which see. 

o J 


118 


TREATMENT OF DISEASE. 

CHRONIC BRONCHITIS. 

This disease is seldom fatal, yet it may lead to 
a fatal disease. The first attack usually occurs 
in the winter. The majority of winter coughs 
are examples of it. In the mild form, there is 
but a slight cough, with shortness of breath, and 
a copious expectoration, these symptoms being 
always aggravated by exposure to cold or wet, or 
by bad living. This disease may, if the inflam¬ 
mation is confined to the larger tubes, exist for 
many years, and the patient experience no very 
great distress other than the discomfort of a fre¬ 
quent cough and expectoration. But if the cap¬ 
illary vessels become involved in the inflamma¬ 
tion, the symptoms are more violent, the breath 
is short and very difficult, and there is an excess¬ 
ive secretion of opaque, frothy mucus, mixed 
with pus. 

Treatment.— With the exception of wearing 
the chest-wrapper nights—see cliest-wrapper— 
and applying once or twice a week the hot fo¬ 
mentation alternated with cold, for thirty min¬ 
utes, and once or twice a week apptying cold to 
the chest and hot to the shoulders, the treatment 
should be as directed for constitutional treatment. 

CONGESTION OF THE LUNGS. 

In treating a common cold on the lungs, give 
a hot bath of any kind for twenty minutes, fol¬ 
lowed by a cool bath for five minutes, and abstain 
from food for a day or two. In the meantime, 
apply hot fomentations alternated with colcl 
every five minutes for one-half hour each day. 
The tepid or cold compress or wet-jacket may be 
worn during the night. 


PLEURISY. 


119 


PNEUMONIA. 

Lung Fever, as this disease is sometimes called, 
is an inflammation of the substance of the lungs. 
It manifests itself by the following 

Symptoms. —This disease is ushered in by rest¬ 
lessness and general febrile disturbance. After 
from one to three days, there are chills or 
rigors, soon followed by nausea, cough, pain in 
the side, distressed breathing, and a pulse as high 
as from 120° to 160° beats per minute, and burn¬ 
ing heat of the skin, thirst, loss of appetite, pros¬ 
tration, headache, and sometimes delirium. Fre¬ 
quently the first symptom is the chill, and this 
is followed immediately by fever, cough, short¬ 
ness of breath, and restlessness. 

Treatment. —Keep cool cloths on the head 
when there is pain or preternatural heat in it. 
Give tepid packs, or the dripping-sheet, or the 
sitz-bath, and foot-bath, all at from 85° to 90° 
once a day. Apply cold compresses to the chest, 
and make hot applications to the shoulders and 
between them for thirty minutes twice a day. 
The fever should be treated according to its form. 
If it assumes the putrid form, treat as putrid fe¬ 
ver ; if the nervous form, treat as nervous fever. 
See Putrid and Nervous Fever. 

PLEURISY. 

This disease is an inflammation of the mem¬ 
brane that lines the cavity of the chest and lungs. 

Symptoms. —A slight chill, followed by a sharp, 
cutting pain in one or both sides. The pain is 
usually seated a little below the nipple. The 
pain is greatly aggravated by the inhalation ot 
air in breathing, as the lungs expand and stretch 


120 


TREATMENT OF DISEASE. 


the inflamed membrane. It is also increased by 
coughing, by lying on the affected side, and by 
pressure. There is a short, harsh cough, the skin 
is hot and dry, the cheeks are flushed, and the 
pulse is hard and quick, and the patient is anx¬ 
ious and restless. 

Treatment.— Time should not be lost before 
commencing the treatment, as this disease is very 
apt to terminate in dropsy of the chest, or in the 
formation of pus. As soon as possible after as¬ 
certaining the nature of the difficulty, give the 
patient as hot a sitz and foot-bath as he can well 
bear for fifteen minutes. Then apply a fomenta¬ 
tion, as hot as can be borne, over the region of 
the pain for from thirty to sixty minutes. The 
heat should be renewed every five minutes. At 
the end of every fifteen minutes during the time, 
cold compresses should be applied for five min¬ 
utes at a time. Another plan is to give the hot 
sitz and foot-bath, then apply ice water to 
the affected part in front, and the hot fomenta¬ 
tion to the shoulders and spine. The fever 
should be treated as putrid fever, if the patient is 
very gross, or as nervous fever, if very weak with¬ 
out much grossness. If the dropsical accumulation 
within the chest continues after the inflammation 
is apparently removed, treat with sweating baths, 
as directed for general treatment of dropsy. 

Night Sweats , may set in during this disease, 
or any other inflammatory or febrile (feverish) 
disease. All that is required is to sponge the 
patient frequently with tepid or cool water, give 
him plenty of pure air, and keep him quiet and 
free from anxiety. Cool dripping-sheets before 
retiring arc among the best appliances. 


PULMONARY CONSUMPTION. 


121 


ASTHMA. 

This affection consists in a spasmodic contrac¬ 
tion of the smallest branches of the bronchial 
tubes so that it is with the greatest difficulty 
that the patient can inhale sufficient air to sus¬ 
tain life. The difficulty is not continuous, but 
the “attacks” occur at irregular intervals. It is 
generally symptomatic of other diseases. 

Treatment. —First, relieve the spasm by the 
hot half-bath or hot sitz and foot-bath prolonged 
for half an hour, allowing the patient in the 
meantime an abundance of pure, cool air, for 
which he is panting. The patient should drink 
freely of hot water to relieve the spasms. If the 
breathing is very difficult, hot fomentations 
should be applied, alternating with cold for 
three minutes, at the end of every ten minutes 
for a half hour. During the interval between 
the paroxysms, the patient should take constitu¬ 
tional treatment, which see. 

PULMONARY CONSUMPTION. 

There are several varieties of pulmonary con¬ 
sumption, but inasmuch as they all result in the 
wasting of the patient’s body and vitality, and as 
they all require about the same treatment, the 
separate varieties will not be presented here. 
The symptoms are such that they are not no¬ 
ticed much, and the patient seldom thinks there 
is much the matter with him until he is past 
help. 

In ail forms of pulmonary consumption, the 
conditions are as follows : The lungs are inflamed 
and ulcerated, or they contain abscesses, or the 

Trsat. Bis. 8 


122 


TREATMENT OF DISEASE. 


raucous membrane of tlie air-cells is coated over 
with a catarrhal membrane, or the lungs are 
filled with tubercles. It matters not which of 
these conditions exists, the result is the same. 
The blood is not properly aerated, as the patient 
cannot inhale sufficient air to vivify it properly, 
consequently, the blood is not in condition to be 
used in building the tissues, and the patient 
gradually wastes away. The wasting, however, 
does not particularly consist in the destruction of 
tissue in the lungs. It consists in this: The 
same waste and decay of tissue that takes 
place in health, as the result of vital action, takes 
place in disease, as the result of vital action. In 
health, the tissues are rebuilt as fast as waste oc¬ 
curs, consequently, the strength does not fail. 
In consumption, the same waste of tissue occurs, 
but as the blood has not sufficient vitality to 
make tissue, it is not used to any extent, con¬ 
sequently, as the tissues are not rebuilt, the body 
must soon waste away. 

Another fact to be noticed is, that in all forms 
of consumption, the internal organs, especially 
the lungs, are congested or inflamed, while there 
is but a feeble circulation in the extremities and 
in the surface. 

Treatment. —From the foregoing remarks, it 
will be seen that in treating consumption, there 
are two things to be accomplished if we would 
be successful. 1. The congested and inflamed 
condition of the lungs is to be overcome. 2. The 
tissues of the patient’s body are to be supplied 
with well-vitalized blood. Here, then, we have 
indicated the course of treatment to pursue. 
The congestion is to be overcome by inducing 
an active superficial circulation. This is to be 


PULMONARY CONSUMPTION. 


123 


accomplished by baths of a few 11111111109’ dura¬ 
tion at as low a temperature as will be agreeable 
to the patient. He must not chill, neither must 
his system receive a shock. The baths should 
be tepid or cool. If the cool bath is employed, 
it should not be continued more than one or two 
minutes, and the patient should be well rubbed 
during the bath. The tepid bath may be con¬ 
tinued from two to five minutes according to the 
strength of the patient, and should end by pour¬ 
ing cool water over the patient. Never give 
consumptive patients a bath sufficiently cold to 
cause a shock. 

The above baths should be given once or twice 
a week, and every one should be followed by 
friction, or good dry-hand rubbing. If the pa¬ 
tient does not warm up by the rubbing, and a 
good reaction does not take place, the bath will 
do injuiy. 

The patient should clothe his extremities as 
warmly as any part of his body, and be sure to 
keep them always warm. To overcome the in¬ 
flammation in the lungs, make cold, cool, or tepid 
applications to the chest, with hot fomentations, 
or dry heat to the spine for ten or fifteen min¬ 
utes at a time two or three times a week, and 
wear the wet compress over the lungs three or 
four nights each week. The wet jacket may be 
worn in place of this if it does not cause the pa¬ 
tient to chill in the night. 

The sun-bath should be taken daily, and the pa¬ 
tient should be much in the open air and sun¬ 
shine, and should occupy a well-ventilated room 
night and day. His bed should be well aired 
daily. 

To supply the tissues with well-vitalized blood, 


121 


TREATMENT OF DISEASE. 


the patient must subsist upon nourishing food, 
discarding all stimulating substances, all grease, 
fats, oils, and condiments of all kinds. See 
Diet for the Sick. He must take all the out¬ 
door exercise that his strength will permit, and 
must accustom himself to full and free breathing. 
The last will require much time, practice, and 
patience. To accomplish it, the patient should 
stand erect, with the shoulders well back, or he 
should lie on his back, without a pillow, on the 
floor, table, or some other hard, level substance; 
then, with the lips closed, he should slowly fill 
his hums, drawing the air in through the nos- 
trils. Great care is required at first not to strain 
the lungs. The lungs should be thus filled two 
or three times, then the patient should rest five 
minutes, and then fill them as before. He should 
continue this exercise for half an hour at a time, 
several times each day, commencing gradually at 
first, only filling the lungs nearly full. While 
thus filling the lungs, and during the whole 
time he is thus occupied, the patient should 
strike all parts of his chest and abdomen with 
the closed hand, very gently at first, after¬ 
ward using more force, but never so as to cause 
much pain. This full breathing and drumming 
the chest and abdomen must be persevered in 
until the lungs fill naturally without it. This 
may require many months. 

The dress must be very loose about the w T aist; 
corsets must not be worn. The patient should 
procure and read a pamphlet entitled, “ Good 
Health ” (see the Catalogue), and practice all it 
teaches. So also should all who would escape 
this fatal disease ; for ninety-nine cases of con¬ 
sumption out of every hundred result from vio- 


DISEASE OF THE HEART. 


12.3 


luting the laws of health needlessly. The young, 
especially, should strive to so live that they may 
escape this dreaded and fatal disease. Oil-baths 
have been recommended in this disease, but I 
have never given them. 

Those who are troubled with lung difficulty 
should spend a few months at some health in¬ 
stitute in the early stages of this disease ; for 
more benefit cam be received by them in one 
month in the early sta,ges than in six months at 
a later period. The great trouble in treating this 
disease is that it is generally neglected until it is 
too late to help the patient. 


DISEASE OF THE HEART. 

Organic disease .of the heart is incurable. 
Functional derangement of the heart, such as 
palpitation, irregularity of the pulse, etc., is a 
symptomatic disease, and may occur when any of 
the large internal, organs are inflamed. Not one 
in a hundred of those who think they have heart 
disease have any more disease of the heart than 
the soundest person in the world. They mistake 
simple palpitation, and the disagreeable feelings 
which accompany it, for disease of the heart, 
whereas the facts in the case are these : Some 
other organ is congested, or inflamed, or hardened, 
or wasted, and the circulation becomes unbalanced, 
and occasionally the heart makes a desperate ef¬ 
fort to force the blood through the capillaries of 
the diseased organ, hence the palpitation, or ir¬ 
regularity. 

Treatment.— In any case of supposed disease 
of the heart, the patient should avoid all excite¬ 
ment, and all excessive exercise, and should care- 


TREATMENT OF DISEASE. 


126 

fully observe all the laws of health, and take 
treatment as directed for constitutional treat¬ 
ment. 

DYSPEPSIA. 

If there is any one disease that should excite 
our sympathy and pity for the sufferer more than 
another, it is dyspepsia. So long as the food is 
well digested, the patient may be agreeable, 
cheerful, and hopeful; but let there be but a 
slight degree of irritation in the stomach of the 
confirmed dyspeptic, and a low-spirited condition 
is immediately induced, which may vary from 
slight dejection and ill-humor to the most ex¬ 
treme melancholy. At times, the patient miscon¬ 
strues every act of friendship, is irritable with 
those who desire to help him, while lie exagger¬ 
ates slight ailments into heavy grievances. When 
suffering from irritation of the stomach, he is no 
more like himself when well than a kernel of 
corn is like a potato. He says and does things 
exactly contrary to what he says and does when 
well. This makes him appear fickle and unreli¬ 
able, yet he cannot help it. Surely, such a per¬ 
son should be pitied. 

The work of digestion is principally performed 
by the gastric and pancreatic fluids. Whenever 
these two fluids are deficient in quantity or in 
quality, the food cannot be properly digested, and 
real dyspepsia is the result. 

Cause.— Probably there is no one disease, con¬ 
cerning the cause of which there exists so great a 
uniformity of opinion in the minds of medical 
men, as dyspepsia. They all agree that errors in 
diet and errors in exercise are almost the sole 
cause of this disease. The principal errors in di- 


DYSPEPSIA. 


127 


et that cause this disease are the following: Food 
taken in too large quantities; food of improper 
quality, especially greasy food, and food highly 
seasoned or mixed with condiments; food taken 
pot irregular times. Or dyspepsia may he caused 
by food imperfectly masticated, through careless¬ 
ness or hurry, or because of bad teeth, etc.; or 
by food taken into the stomach at too short inter¬ 
vals, not allowing the stomach sufficient time to 
rest. The drinking of too much fluid while eat¬ 
ing is also a cause of dyspepsia. In addition to 
these errors, the want of bodily exercise, seden¬ 
tary habits, inordinate intellectual exertion, care, 
anxiety, excessive physical exercise, the frequent 
use of drugs, especially narcotics, smoking, tobac¬ 
co-chewing, snuff-taking, and the use of alcoholic 
drinks, tea, and coffee, are each and all causes of 
dyspepsia. 

Symptoms. —These vary in different individ¬ 
uals. A dyspeptic may manifest any of the fol¬ 
lowing symptoms: pain or uneasiness in the 
stomach, tenderness and a feeling of all-goneness 
at the pit of the stomach, as some express them¬ 
selves, foul breath, coated tongue, and unpleasant 
taste in the morning, capricious appetite, which 
at times refuses food, and at other times is un¬ 
satisfied even after a hearty meal, or there may 
be an entire loss of appetite; sensation of pain 
or a sense of weight and fullness in the upper 
portion of the abdomen, the formation of gas in 
the stomach or intestines, burning pain in the 
stomach—heart-burn—cramp in the stomach, fre¬ 
quent eructations of gas or water from the stom¬ 
ach, habitually constipated bowels, chronic diar¬ 
rhea, or these conditions alternating. There may 
be nausea and vomiting, palpitation of the heart, 


TREATMENT OF DISEASE. 


128 


irregularity of the pulse, headache, and occasion¬ 
ally dimness of vision. If the stomach is greatly 
distended with gas, the breathing will be difficult. 

Treatment.— Break away from every false 
habit; eat plain food, cooked in a simple manner; 
discard all rich food, grease, fat or oil, eat spar¬ 
ingly, masticate the food thoroughly, eat regu¬ 
lar ly, and not oftener than three times in twenty- 
four hours; drink neither tea, coffee, nor other 
drink with meals; use no alcoholic drinks at any 
time; take ail the exercise in the open air that 
can be taken short of fatigue; breathe full and 
free; sleep much, and at regular hours; and al¬ 
ways retire early. If the stomach refuses to re¬ 
tain food, it should have rest for twenty-four 
hours, then begin feeding with a single spoonful 
of milk. After a half hour, give another spoon¬ 
ful, and so on. After a few hours, increase the 
amount, or add a little sifted oat, wheat, corn, or 
barley-meal gruel, and increase the amount no 
bister than the stomach can retain it. Take the 
mild baths, such as the dripping-sheet, spray- 
bath, sponge, sitz, or lialf-bath, twice a week. 

Take the dry-hand-rub every morning, and 
gently percuss the abdomen and chest with the 
closed fist every hour through the day for ten 
minutes at a time. Horseback riding is excel¬ 
lent for those afflicted with this disease. Sun¬ 
baths should be taken daily. Hot fomentations 
over the stomach two hours after eating will 

o 

aid digestion. 

INFLAMMATION OF THE STOMACH. 

There is a general fever, with burning pain in 
the upper part of the abdomen, which is increased 


INFLAMMATION OF TOE BOWELS. 


129 


on the slightest pressure; constant nausea,followed 
by violent retchings ; an accelerated pulse ; diffi¬ 
cult breathing; great thirst, with unremitting 
desire for cold drinks, which are vomited as soon 
as taken. Soon extreme prostration follow's, with 
faintness. 

Cause.— Powerful irritants or poisons taken 
into the stomach; cold water drank in large 
quantities when the body is heated by exercise, 
drinking of boiling Avater; large doses of emet¬ 
ics when they fail to produce vomiting, and large 
doses of tartar emetic. In most cases it is caused 
by the medicine the doctor ordered. 

Treatment.— Give the patient frequent sips 
of ice Avater; small quantities of broken ice may 
he swallowed; cool Avater may be drank freely. 
The bowels, Avhen constipated, should be freed 
by the use of tepid enemas. If there is a diar¬ 
rhea, give cool or cold enemas. Treat the fever 
as directed for simple fever. Hot fomentations, 
or heat and cold alternated, should be applied 
over the stomach several times a day. 

INFLAMMATION OF THE BOWELS. 

Symptoms. —There is a general fever—which 
may begin Avith chills—accompanied with severe 
pain in some part of the abdomen, generally 
around the umbilicus—navel—or on the right 
side of the abdomen between the right hip and 
the umbilicus. The pain is increased by pressure, 
but colic pains are not. The patient lies on his 
back Avith his knees drawn up, so as to relax the 
abdominal Avails. There is obstinate constipation 
generally, but sometimes diarrhea attends, the 
pieces being green and offensive. Soon the symp- 


130 


TREATMENT OF DISEASE. 


toms all become more marked, there is excessive 
thirst, dryness of the tongue, vomiting of bilious 
or offensive matter, and a watery diarrhea. When 
the lining membrane of the abdomen becomes in¬ 
flamed consequent upon childbirth, the disease is 
called puerperal fever. 

Treatment. —Reduce the inflammation by the 
constant application of the cold compress, changed 
as often as it becomes warm, or with the hot 
fomentation alternated with the cold compress 
every ten minutes. The hot sitz and foot-bath 
may be administered two or three times a day, 
ten or fifteen minutes at a time. The bowels 
should be freed by tepid enemas. Ice water may 
be drank frequently in small quantities. Reduce 
the fever, if there is any, with frequent wet-sheet- 
packs or tepid spongings. Treat puerperal fever 
in the same manner. 

DYSENTERY. 

When the laws of health are all obeyed, this 
disease never exists. Dysentery consists in an 
inflammation and ulceration of the lower portion 
of the large intestine and the rectum. There is 
usually more or less feverishness, frequent mucous 
and bloody stools, bearing down of the lower 
portion of the large intestine, a frequent desire 
to go to stool, and griping pains in the abdomen. 
In some cases, the ulceration extends the entire 
length of the large intestine and some distance 
into the small intestines. 

Cause. —Improper food, impure water, ex¬ 
posure to wet and cold, intemperance, excessive 
use of flesh-meats. 

Treatment. — The bowels should be well 


DIARRHEA. 


131 


cleansed by a large warm enema, after which a 
small cold enema should be given and retained 
if possible. In some cases, ice water has the 
most soothing effect. The warm sitz-bath may 
be taken for eight or ten minutes at a time two 
or three times a day. A large cold wet compress 
should be applied to the abdomen constantly, 
and changed as often as it becomes warm, until 
the inflammation is subdued. Hot fomentations 
applied for half an hour, or alternated with cold 
every ten minutes, will be found very useful. 
The entire surface of the body should be sponged 
off several times a day with water that is most 
agreeable to the patient’s feelings, until the fever 
ceases. The patient should take occasional sips 
of ice water. The diet should be very spare until 
the violence of the inflammation and fever is over¬ 
come. Total abstinence from food is better. All 
the food taken should be bland, and of the lightest 
kinds, such as boiled rice, rice-meal gruel, gruel 
from any kind of meal, with or without milk. 
New milk may be given. Perfect rest in bed in 
a well-ventilated room is requisite even in the 
mildest forms of dysentery. 

DIARRHEA. 

Medical writers give us seven varieties of this 
disease; but as such a division will only tend to 
confuse the mind of the nurse, the disease will be 
described as a unit. 

Cause. —Overeating, and the use of improper 
food, such as unripe fruit, raw vegetables, sau¬ 
sage, pork, veal, or excessive quantities of fresh 
meat of any kind. Salt meat and salt fish may 
cause diarrhea by first inducing constipation. It 


132 


TREATMENT OF DISEASE. 


may also be caused by want of nourishing food, 
by drinking foul water, or by inhaling the fumes 
of decaying animal or vegetable matter, or by 
great mental excitement, exposure to damp or 
cold, or by excessive heat. Diarrhea is often a 
symptom of pulmonary consumption, congestion 
of the liver, and nervous and putrid—typhoid— 
fever. 

Symptoms. —The fecal discharges may be of the 
common quality, yet be loose and copious; if so, 
the cause is overeating or irritating food. In addi¬ 
tion to the former symptoms, the feces may con¬ 
tain much bilious matter, in which case the dis¬ 
charges would be yellow or greenish. There may 
be much mucus mixed with the feces, or they 
may be very watery, the discharges being thin 
and frothy, or the food may be expelled undigest¬ 
ed. There may be membranous matter dis¬ 
charged ; if so, there is much inflammation in the 
bowels. There is also griping pain in the abdo¬ 
men. 

Treatment.— This must depend upon the 
cause. If occasioned by overeating, fasting would 
be requisite; if by liver difficulty, the liver should 
be treated (see Diseased Liver); if by inflam¬ 
mation of the bowels, treat the inflammation. 
When the treatment is commenced, a very thor¬ 
ough tepid enema should be administered. It 
should be as large as the patient can bear, and 
should consist of from a quart to two quarts of 
water for an adult, and in proportion for a child. 
The enema should be repeated the second day. 
Small cold enemas—about a tumblerful—should 
be administered once or twice a day and re¬ 
tained. Warm sitz-baths, followed by a cool sitz- 
bath, should be taken for fifteen or twenty min- 


EPIDEMIC CHOLERA. 


133 


utes, three or four times a week. The hot fomen¬ 
tation, alternating with the cold compress, once 
or twice a week, is useful. The general health 
must be attended to (see Dyspepsia). The food 
must be largely or wholly composed of prepara¬ 
tions of fruits and grains. Wheat meal, oatmeal, 
barley meal, and cracked wheat, may all be used. 

MALIGNANT OR EPIDEMIC CHOLERA. 

* 

This disease lias been considered the most fa¬ 
tal of any to which the human race is subject. 
Its characteristic features are vomiting, purging 
of watery discharges of the color and consist¬ 
ency of rice water, cramps, loss of animal heat, 
suppression of the urine, collapse and secondary 
fever. 

There are usually three stages. In the first, 
there is diarrhea. In the second, there is purg¬ 
ing of rice-water evacuations, vomiting, severe 
cramps, laborious breathing, coldness, with livid 
or bluish skin, sinking of the pulse, and collapse. 
In the collapsed stage, the surface is cold, the skin 
blue, the tongue lead color and cold, the lips are 
purple, the eyes sunken in their sockets, the 
cheeks fallen, the body diminishes, and there is a 
death-like appearance of the entire body; the 
voice is husky and faint, and the skin is bathed in 
a cold sweat. In the third stage, there is a reaction; 
a fever sets in, which continues until all danger 
is past. 

Cause. —The immediate cause of epidemic 
cholera is unknown, but is supposed to be atmos¬ 
pheric. There are, however, certain well-known 
predisposing causes which all may avoid. When 
these causes are present, sporadic cholera—cliol- 


134 


TREATMENT OF DISEASE. 


era morbus—may exist, and if the atmospheric 
cause is also present, epidemic cholera may pre¬ 
vail ; without these predisposing causes, neither 
form can prevail, therefore, cholera of every de¬ 
scription may be avoided by avoiding the predis¬ 
posing causes. These are, malarious gases that 
arise from decomposing vegetable and animal 
matters, want of ventilation, impure water (this 
last is very bad), fear, and uncleanly habits of 
person and house*. 

Treatment Preventive.— Remove all decom¬ 
posing animal or vegetable matter, including of¬ 
fal, manure heaps, stagnant water, foul pig-pens, 
henneries, and privy vaults. In other words, 
make your premises as clean as possible, keep the 
living and sleeping rooms thoroughly ventilated 
night and day, and let in the sunlight. Use no 
impure water—be sure on this point—use filtered 
rain water or soft water, and eat plain, nourishing 
food, composed of vegetable substances. Take a 
tepid bath twice a week; keep the bowels regular 
by the use of wheat-meal bread, mush, or with 
enemas if necessary. 

Treatment Curative.— As soon as the diar¬ 
rhea makes its appearance, administer a copious 
tepid enema, give a warm bath for twenty min¬ 
utes, and put the patient to bed and enjoin strict 
repose; then apply a cold compress to the abdo¬ 
men, and change as often as it becomes hot. Let 
the patient drink freely of cool or tepid water, or 
sparingly of cold water. If the diarrhea contin¬ 
ues four or five hours after the bath, give a small 
cold enema, to be retained. Give a woolen sheet 
pack, as hot as the patient can bear, for fifteen or 
twenty minutes, then take him out and wipe dry, 
then apply the cold compress to the abdomen as 


CHOLERA MORE US. 


135 


before. After vomiting occurs, give ice water in 
small quantities to drink. Bits of ice may be swal¬ 
lowed also. If cramping occurs, apply heat to the 
extremities and abdomen, and rub all parts 
thoroughly. Should collapse occur, give an ene¬ 
ma of hot water of three, four, or more pints as 
hot as the patient can bear, and envelop him in a 
very hot wet woolen blanket, covered with dry 
blankets, as directed for packs. As the patient 
recovers, be careful not to overfeed him, nor al¬ 
low him to take too much exercise. This disease 
is often fatal. 

CHOIiERA MORBUS, OR SUMMER 
CHOLERA. 

The symptoms of this are not so violent as in 
the preceding variety of cholera; yet they do 
not differ particularly, except that the matter 
expelled both by purging and vomiting contains 
a great amount of bilious matter. The attack 
is generally sudden. At first, the contents of the 
stomach and intestines are voided by vomiting 
and purging, and then a quantity—sometimes an 
enormous quantity—of thick, yellowish fluid is 
expelled from the bowels by purging and vomit¬ 
ing. And there is a burning sensation in the 
upper part of the abdomen. After a while, 
spasms occur in the lower extremities, especially 
in the calf of the leg; the surface of the abdomen 
is drawn up into knots, and, in course of time, 
the patient, exhausted by the pain and the 
spasms, and still more by the abundant discharges, 
grows cold and faint. Death sometimes follows, 
but not often. 

Causes. —The same as in the preceding variety. 


13G 


TREATMENT OF DISEASE. 


Treatment. —In the early stage, give the pa¬ 
tient copious warm enemas, and let him drink 
freely of warm water. After this is vomited, let 
him drink ice water frequently, hut in small quan¬ 
tities. As soon as possible after the “ attack,’’ 
give a warm sitz and foot-bath, or the half-bath, 
or full bath, or hot wet woolen sheet pack. It 
should continue about twenty minutes. The 
cold compress should be constantly applied to 
the abdomen, and changed as often as it becomes 
warm. The griping in the abdomen is best re¬ 
lieved by hot fomentations. The preternatural 
heat of the patient, should any exist, may be re¬ 
lieved by the cool sitz-bath, frequent sponging, 
or the wet-sheet pack; if headache occurs, apply 
the cold wet head-cap. 

CHOLERA INFANTUM. 

This disease prevails extensively among in¬ 
fants, generally in their first and second years, 
in cities during the summer. 

Symptoms. —These do not differ materially 
from the preceding. The first symptoms of 
the disease are generally profuse diarrhea, the 
stools being fluid of a light color, though often of 
a pale yellow or green color. After a few days 
(from one to three or four), vomiting sets in, and 
everything taken into the stomach is ejected im¬ 
mediately, and with violence. After the disease 
has continued a short time, the discharges from 
the bowels are a colorless and inodorous fluid, 
and are discharged without the least effort. At 
times, however, they are voided with force. In 
this case, there is severe griping and dragging, 
or bearing down in the lower intestine. 


WIND COLIC — FLATULENCE. 


137 


Treatment. —Give first a tepid enema. Then, 
at intervals of a few hours, give small cool ene¬ 
mas, give a warm full-bath for a few minutes 
daily, and frequent spongings with tepid or cool 
water; give pure, cool water to drink freely, and 
if there is blood passed, give a small cold enema. 
Hot and cold compresses alternated may be ap¬ 
plied to the abdomen daily. Place the child 
where it can have an abundance of pure, free, 
cool air. Keep the clothing and bedding clean 
and dry. If the head becomes affected, apply to 
it hot fomentations, alternated with cold. Feed 
the child as directed in Diet for Infants in the 
pamphlet entitled Good Health. See Catalogue. 

WIND COLIC-FLATULENCE. 

When the food is not properly digested, or 
when unsuitable food is eaten, or when from any 
cause the food ferments in the alimentary canal, 
a gas is generated which, inflating a portion of 
the intestines, causes severe pain. There is, 
however, no inflammation, and no preternatural 
heat, and the pain is somewhat relieved by press¬ 
ure. Colic is also caused by the retained faeces 
in constipation. Infants, when fed from a bottle 
by a careless nurse, often swallow air with their 
food in sufficient quantities to cause extensive 
flatulence. 

Treatment Preventive. —Avoid the use of 
all such food as is known to cause colic. Avoid 
exposure to damp and cold. Eat moderately ot 
the most wholesome food. Attend to the general 
health. 

Treatment Curative. —Give a thorough enema 
of tepid water, and apply hot fomentations, alter- 

Treat. Di.«. 0 


J 


TREATMENT OF DISEASE. 


nated with cold, to tlie abdomen. The hot, 
warm, or cold sitz-bath may be employed. 

LEAD COLIC, COPPER COLIC. 

Colic is often occasioned by sleeping in a newly 
painted room, or by working with paint made of 
white lead, or by working brass and copper. 

Symptoms. —Similar to those in wind colic, 
and in addition, there are severe griping pains at or 
just above the umbilicus; the edges of the gums 
are of a purple or lead color. 

Treatment. —The same as for the preceding 
variety, viz., large tepid enemas, hot fomenta¬ 
tions alternated with cold, to the bowels, and hot, 
warm, or cold sitz-baths for t wen tv minutes. 

CONSTIPATION. 

As a rule, most people, when their bowels act 
normally, have an evacuation every day; some, 
twice a day, and others, once in two days. It is 
important that the bowels should act regularly, 
and that they act sufficiently often that their 
contents shall not become hardened. It is best 
that they act once or twice daily. 

There are many, however, who neglect them¬ 
selves, and have no regularity of habit in this re¬ 
spect. Evil results often follow this neglect, such 
as irritation of the mucous membrane of the in¬ 
testines, causing inflammation, diarrhea, dysen¬ 
tery, piles—hemorrhoids, etc. 

Cause. —The most common cause is the use of 
bread made of bolted wheat flour, salt fish, salt 
meat, and sedentary habits. 

Treatment. —Move the bowels with enemas, 
and subsist upon plain food ; use no bolted wheat 


WOK MS. 


130 


flour, but use unbolted wheat meal or graham 
Hour, com meal, oatmeal, pearl barley, cracked 
wheat, hulled corn, etc., and fruit, especially ap¬ 
ples. Take daily exercise in the open air, such 
as walking, horseback riding, or useful labor of 
any kind. Indolence and too much sleep must 
be avoided. A glass or two of cold water drank 
night and morning is very beneficial. 

Sometimes the rectum becomes so packed with 
hardened feces that a passage cannot be had, nor 
can water be introduced. In such cases, the 
feces must be removed with the handle of a 
spoon, or a similar instrument, or with the 
fingers. 


PILES—HEMORRHOIDS. 

The usual causes of this troublesome difficulty are 
habitual constipation, the frequent use of purging 
medicines, torpid liver, straining to pass hardened 
feces, rich food, insufficient exercise, etc. 

Treatment.— Keep the bowels free, avoid all 
the known causes of the difficulty, do not over¬ 
eat, and take a shallow cold sitz-bath two or 
three times a day, when they are inflamed and 
painful. Ice introduced into the rectum will 
give relief. 

When bleeding or internal piles exist, the 
hemorrhage can be stopped as directed for hem¬ 
orrhage of the rectum, which see. The general 
health must be well attended to. See Constitu¬ 
tional Treatment. 


WORMS. 

Cause. —The use of unwholesome food, over¬ 
eating, and indigestion, are the chief causes. It 


140 


TREATMENT OF DISEASE. 


is true that the eggs must be introduced into the 
alimentary canal, yet, were proper food taken in 
proper quantities, the bowels would act regularly, 
and the worms could not remain in them. 

Symptoms. —The most common are colicky 

«/ 

pains and swelling of the abdomen, picking of 
the nose, itching of the rectum and anus, irregu¬ 
larity of the bowels, foulness of the breath, grind¬ 
ing of the teeth while sleeping, voracious appe¬ 
tite, headache, etc. The most conclusive evi¬ 
dence is the passage of worms or joints of worms. 

Treatment. —The small thread worm can gen¬ 
erally be removed by cold enemas of salt water, 
which should be given three times a week for a 
few weeks to remove any remaining worms. 
Sometimes cold water alone is sufficient. The 
long, round worm will have to be killed in most 
cases before it can be removed. Anthelmintics, 
or worm medicines, will have to be given. These 
are simply poisons, and are not to be given for 
the purpose of curing the sick child, but for the 
purpose of killing the worms, thereby causing 
them to loosen their hold on the mucous mem¬ 
brane of the intestine, after which they are read¬ 
ily passed off. Of course a large dose of the 
poison would kill the child. There are many 
cases, however, in which the worms can be 
caused to loosen their hold by the use of mucil¬ 
aginous drinks ; pumpkin-seed tea or slippery 
elm bark will often effect this. When a tape 
worm is known to exist within the bowels—this 
is ascertained by the passage of joints of the 
worm—a physician who understands his business 
should be employed, as much care has to be ex¬ 
ercised in administering the poisons. 


DISEASED L1VHK. 


Ill 


ASCITES—DROPSY OF THE ABDOMEN. 

When this disease exists, the general health 
must be improved by the employment of suitable 
hygienic agencies. Tepid enemas should be ad¬ 
ministered frequently, also hot-air-baths, hot 
packs, or hot sitz-baths, once or twice a week. 
In all other respects follow directions for consti¬ 
tutional treatment, and general treatment of 
dropsy. 


DISEASED LIVES. 

This term is intended to cover all the diseases 
to which the liver is liable. 

The liver may be simply congested, or it may 
be hardened, or it may be wasted, or gall-stones 
may exist and remain in the gall-bladder, or they 
may pass through the biliary ducts, causing ex¬ 
cruciating pain, or the liver may be inflamed, the 
bile may be reabsorbed, causing jaundice, or ab¬ 
scesses may form in the liver. 

Symptoms. —When the liver is congested, there 
is headache, a disinclination for exertion, frequent 
flushing of the face, coldness of the extremities, 
pains in the muscles of the loins and limbs, 
weight in the right side under the lower ribs, 
the bowels are more or less filled with wind, 
there is nausea, dizziness, dyspepsia, slight jaun¬ 
dice, and highly colored urine, which is usually 
rather scanty. 

When the liver is in a state of wasting (atro¬ 
phy), there is indigestion, flatulence—wind in 
the intestines—constipation and diarrhea alter¬ 
nating, pale-colored stools, a dry, sallow skin, fall¬ 
ing awav in flesh, and loss of strength. 


142 


TREATMENT OF DISEASE. 


When gall-stones pass from the gall-bladder, 
they cause a sharp, cutting pain in the region of 
the liver, and the patient throws himself about 
on the bed in different positions to get relief by 
change of posture. The upper portion of the right 
side of the abdomen is very sensitive to the 
touch, nausea and vomiting come on rapidly, the 
bowels are confined and distended with wind. 

When there is acute inflammation, there is, at 
the first, tenderness over the liver, high fever, 
hot skin, extreme thirst, scanty urine, fullness, 
and more or less pain in the right side under the 
ribs, which is aggravated by pressure, by cough¬ 
ing, or by deep breathing; inability to lie on the 
left side, the breathing is more or less difficult, 
and there is a sympathetic cough, vomiting, and 
pain in the shoulders. If the inflammation con¬ 
tinues to the suppurative stage, an abscess forms. 
The symptoms attending abscess are the same as 
those in acute inflammation, with the addition of 
chills, hectic fever, disturbance in the stomach, 
weight in the region of the liver, and a dry 
cough. 

When jaundice exists, the skin and the mem¬ 
brane of the eyes are of a 3’ellow color, the urine 
is saffron-colored, and there may be exhaustion, 
drowsiness, giddiness, or peevishness. 

Treatment.— This must first be with reference 
to the cause, which must be removed. All highly 
seasoned food, all fats and oils, sweetmeats, and 
rich preserves, sauces and gravies, etc., must be 
avoided. The patient must use only the most 
wholesome articles of diet, take exercise daily in 
the open air, sleep in a well-ventilated room, 
keep the bowels unobstructed by the use of coarse 
food or by enemas. He should take a thorough 


INFLAMMATION OF THE KIDNEYS. 


143 


dry-hand-rubbing on rising in the morning, and 
two or three times a week take a tepid or cool 
sitz-bath for five minutes, followed by a tepid 
dripping-sheet. 

If gall-stones are passing, he should apply hot 
fomentations over the region of the pain. When 
there is acute inflammation, he should apply the 
cold compress constantly, unless the pain is severe, 
in which case, the hot fomentation should be ap¬ 
plied. The cold compress may be occasionally 
exchanged for the prolonged warm fomentation. 
The hot sitz-bath and hot foot-bath .are good in 
this difficulty. In all forms of liver disease, the 
wet-girdle should be worn four nights in the 
week. The directions for taking constitutional 
treatment should be followed out except when 
contra-directed here. 

DISEASES OF THE SPLEEN. 

Those who have had intermittent fever, and 
have taken much quinine, are apt to have a dis¬ 
eased spleen. A hard lump may be felt in the 
left side—usually known as ague cake—and 
there is more or less pain in the left side. 

Treatment.— The same as for diseased liver. 

INFLAMMATION OF THE KIDNEYS. 

Scrofulous persons are quite apt to have acute 
inflammation of the kidneys. This disease is also 
brought on quite frequently by exposure to cold 
and damp, also from the formation of gravel—hard¬ 
ened calculi—in the kidneys or their excretory 
ducts—the ureters—occasioned by drinking hard 
water, also from intemperance combined with poor 
living, also from the use of medicines given to pro- 


U l 


TREATMENT OF DISEASE. 


mote the urinary excretions. Suppuration and the 
formation of abscesses in the substance of the 
kidneys often result from acute inflammation in 
these organs. Chronic inflammation may result in 
a gradual breaking down of the excreting glands 
of the kidneys, causing most serious difficulty. 

Symptoms. —In the acute variety of this dis¬ 
ease, there is deep-seated pain in the loins on the 
affected side, especially in the region of the kid¬ 
neys ; the pain sometimes extending along the 
duct from the kidney to the neck of the bladder, 
or to the groin. The pain is increased by press¬ 
ure or by exercise. There is also numbness of 
the thigh on the affected side. There may be 
occasional chills, fever, nausea,, and vomiting, 
great thirst, constipation, and a swollen or bloat¬ 
ed abdomen, and occasionally there may be sup¬ 
pression of the urine. 

In chronic inflammation of the kidneys, the 
symptoms differ from the shove in that they 
are scattered through a longer period, consequent¬ 
ly are not so noticeable, yet, were they all con¬ 
centrated into two or three weeks’ time, they 
would be as above described. 

Treatment.— Acute inflammation of the kid¬ 
neys should be treated by applying hot fomenta¬ 
tions to the loins and back, over the kidneys, or 
by alternating the hot fomentation with the cold 
compress, or by applying cold to the back, and 
heat to the bowels over the umbilicus. The hot 
• sitz-bath should be taken frequently. The hot¬ 
air-bath and the hot wet woolen sheet pack are 
also applicable. The fever that attends should be 
treated as an ordinary fever. Wear the cool wet- 
girdle nights, and apply cold water over the kid¬ 
neys frequently. 


PARALYSIS OF T11E BLADDER. 


145 


In chronic inflammation of the kidneys, the 
tepid sitz-bath, full-bath, half-bath, the dripping- 
sheet, and the spray-bath, are all applicable, and 
any of these may be taken three times a week. 
If there is much pain, apply hot fomentations. 
The diet must be strictly hygienic. 

INFLAMMATION OF THE BLADDER. 

This disease is not a frequent occurrence, yet 
it sometimes exists as the result of stone in the 
bladder, or the habitual use of medicines to pro¬ 
mote the urinary excretions. It may also be 
caused by the protracted retention of the urine. 

Symptoms.— Shivering, pain over the bladder, 
and heat in the external urinary passage—the 
urethra—with a constant desire to pass urine, 
which is voided in very small quantities. There 
is a high fever, with nausea, general restlessness, 
and anxiety. 

Treatment. —Give the hot sitz-bath, as hot as 
can be borne, for fifteen or twenty minutes at a 
time, three or four times a day, and apply the 
cold wet compress over the bladder at other times. 
Renew the compress as often as it gets warm. 
Treat the accompanying fever with wet-sheet- 
' packs, or tepid baths, as directed for fever in gen¬ 
eral. Give an occasional tepid enema, with a 
small cold enema to be retained after the bowels 
have moved. Keep the extremities warm. 

PARALYSIS OF THE BLADDER. 

It sometimes happens that for some cause, 
such as neglect, or sensitiveness because of the 
presence of persons of the opposite sex, that the 
urine is retained until the bladder, by being over- 


146 


TREATMENT OF DISEASE. 


stretched, loses its power to contract and void 
its contents, or there may be internal pressure 
against the neck of the bladder, caused by retro¬ 
version of the uterus. When the bladder is tilled 
to its utmost capacity, the urine will dribble 
away slowly, this incontinence being one of the 
symptoms of retention. 

Treatment.— In all cases when retroflexion 
of the uterus is not known to be the cause of the 
retention, it may be considered as highly proba¬ 
ble that paralysis of the bladder exists. If the 
pain is not very severe, a hot sitz-bath or hot fo¬ 
mentation should be given without delay. The 
hot application should be followed by a dash of 
cold water on the abdomen. If the distress is 
very great, or if the hot applications do not cause 
a passage of the urine, or if the retention is 
caused by retroversion of the uterus, the urine 
should be immediately drawn off with a catheter. 

PAINFUL URINATION. 

This disease may be relieved by warm sitz- 
baths, or the warm full bath, hot fomentations, 
and copious water drinking. 

INCONTINENCE OF URINE. 

This disease consists of a frequent or perpetual 
discharge of urine. The difficulty in retaining 
it is caused by the habitual use of hot drinks, 
medicine given to promote the secretion of urine, 
and alcoholic drinks. 

Treatment.— Remove the cause, and follow 
the plan directed for constitutional treatment. 


LEUCOllRHQSA. 


147 


UTERINE DERANGEMENTS. 

The uterus and vaginal canal are liable to sev¬ 
eral forms of disease. There may be acute or 
chronic inflammation of this organ, or there may 
be excessive menstruation, or suppression of the 
menses, or retention, or painful menstruation; or 
there may be displacement of the uterus, or can¬ 
cerous tumors, or ulcerations, or leucorrhoea may 
exist. There are but few of these difficulties that 
can be successfully treated at home, and every 
patient who is afflicted with serious uterine diffi¬ 
culty should go to some good health institute 
where the principles of treatment advocated in 
this work are carried out. The Health Reform 
Institute at Battle Creek, Michigan, is probably 
the best in America. 

INFLAMMATION OF THE UTERUS. 

The symptoms in this difficulty are similar to 
those in inflammation of the bladder. There is, 
however, a sense of weight and pain that is not 
referable to the bladder, and which is caused by 
the swollen uterus. 

Treatment.— The same as for inflammation of 
the bladder. In addition to this, however, give 
frequent cool vaginal injections. 

LEUCORRHCEA. 

This disease affects more than half the women 
in America. In fact, it is the most common dis¬ 
ease to which women are liable. It consists of a 
slight inflammation of the mucous membrane of 
the vaginal canal, or of the uterus, which results 


148 


TREATMENT OF DISEASE. 


in the throwing out of a white, or yellowish 
white, fluid, which is frequently or constantly 
discharged. There is usually more or less pain 
in the back, with a sense of weariness after slight 
exertion, loss of appetite, lowness of spirits, nau¬ 
sea, flatulence, or some other form of indigestion. 

Treatment.— The patient should seek to im¬ 
prove the general health by carefully following 
the directions given for constitutional treatment. 
In addition to this, cool vaginal injections should 
be administered three or four times each day. 

The same treatment is applicable to most uter¬ 
ine difficulties. If the patient is full of blood 
and not much reduced, the treatment can be 
more vigorous; but if weak and bloodless, the 
treatment must be mild. 

SUPPRESSION OF THE MENSES. 

For cause and treatment of this difficulty, see 
Chlorosis. 


UTERINE DISPLACEMENTS. 

Uterine displacements require both general 
and local treatment, and, as a general thing, can¬ 
not be successfully treated at home, yet there 
are certain preventive measures that ought to be 
understood and adopted by all, and these consist 
in avoiding the causes of the difficulty. The 
habit of dressing girls so that their extremities 
become chilled while the internal organs are over¬ 
heated, is one great cause of this difficulty. An¬ 
other cause is wearing corsets, and having the 
garments tight about the waist, or suspended 
therefrom, thereby pressing the abdominal or¬ 
gans down upon the pelvic organs so that the 


UTERINE DISPLACEMENTS. 


149 


latter have to give way to make room for the 
former. Hardened faeces, if allowed to accumulate 
in the lower bowel, may cause displacement, as 
also may severe straining at stool. 

There is one habit that very many girls and 
young women have that is very liable to cause 
displacement of the uterus, in fact, I believe that 
a large share of the cases of retroversion and ret¬ 
roflexion are dependent mainly on this one habit. 
The habit to which I refer is that of retaining 
the urine until the bladder becomes filled to its 
utmost capacity. As the bladder becomes filled 
with water, it tips the uterus backward or presses 
it downward. 

Mothers should instruct their daughters to at¬ 
tend promptly to the calls of nature, for if this 
matter is habitually neglected, it soon becomes a 
fixed habit, and the bladder in a great measure 
loses its powers of sensation so that the distress 
which was experienced at first when it was but 
slightly distended is not felt when the disten¬ 
tion is still greater. The constant downward 
and backward pressure of the bladder against 
the uterus soon tells upon its supports, and the 
displacement becomes permanent. 

In treating displacements, all the causes of the 
difficulties should be carefully avoided, and the 
general health well attended to and improved. 
Cool baths and cool vaginal injections and cool 
sitz-baths of four or five minutes’ duration are 
beneficial. The abdomen should be well kneaded 
daity, and the bowels kept free. In many cases, 
the organ will require to be occasionally replaced. 
The patient should take constitutional treatment. 


150 


TREATMENT OF DISEASE. 


SKII\ T DISEASES. 

When the general health is neglected, and in¬ 
ternal organs become torpid, the skin is liable to 
various diseases, such as eruptions, rashes, scales, 
etc. 

Treatment. —It matters not what form the 
disease of the skin assumes, constitutional treat¬ 
ment is required, and in addition thereto, the 
patient should strictly regard all the laws of 
health. 


ITCH. 

The itch is caused by a minute insect that 
burrows under the scarfskin. The disease com¬ 
mences as watery pimples, which, becoming 
ruptured by scratching, become festering sores. 

Treatment.— Administer a thorough, hot full 
bath, or a prolonged warm bath, using soft soap 
freely, then apply an ointment made of eight 
ounces of lard or glycerine, two ounces of flour 
sulphur, and one-half ounce of carbonate of po¬ 
tassium. Apply the ointment warm to all parts, 
then put the patient to bed and wrap him up well 
all night; be sure the patient keeps warm. In 
the morning, wash thoroughly in hot water with 
plenty of soft soap. Wash all the bedding used 
about the body, and boil it thoroughly, to remove 
the sulphur. 

'ACCIDENTS. 

Burns and Scalds. If the burn or scald is 
not so serious as to raise a blister, there will be 
no special requirement for treatment, except to 
quiet the nerves and exclude the air. 


DROWNING. 


151 


The part may be oiled with any kind of oil, or 
it may be covered with molasses, or anything to 
exclude the air. Cotton-wool bound on will 
often be all that is required. If a blister is 
formed, the water should be removed by prick¬ 
ing the skin with a fine needle. Care must be 
taken not to remove the skin, however, as this 
would permit the air to come in contact with the 
flesh, and serious consequences might follow. 
After letting the water out, as directed, the part 
should be oiled and bound with cotton, as di¬ 
rected above. 

If a fever arises, the patient should take a bath 
at 70° or 75° for a few minutes, and then take a 
dry pack to induce sweating if possible, giving 
water to drink freely. In deep burns, where the 
skin is removed, starch or flour may be sprinkled 
over the part and allowed to remain until it is 
removed by the formation of pus, when the sur¬ 
face may be gently washed, and the flour again 
applied. Instead of using the flour, oil and cot¬ 
ton may be used. 

After once dressing the wound, it is best not 
to remove the bandage any sooner, nor oftener, 
than is required to keep the part clean, as the 
admission of air causes mischief. 

When a person’s clothes take fire, the flame, 
can be speedily extinguished by wrapping him in 
a blanket. This will exclude the air, and extin¬ 
guish the flame. 


DROWNING. 

If a person is drowned, an effort should be 
made to restore life, unless an hour or more has 
elapsed since the accident. 


152 


TREATMENT OF DISEASE. 


It should be remembered that, in drowning, 
death occurs from lack of air, and not because 
the lungs are filled with water. In drowning, 
the glottis closes spasmodically, and shuts the 
air out from the lungs. 

Treatment. —Place the patient on his back 
with the head and shoulders slightly raised. 
Cleanse the nostrils, mouth, and throat from mucus, 
after which draw the tongue firmly forward, so 
as to keep the tip well extended at the side of 
the mouth ; this will open the glottis; then com¬ 
press the front and sides of the chest with the 
patient’s own arms, which will force the air out of 
his lungs; then suddenly remove the pressure, 
and grasp the arms just above the elbows and 
draw them upward until they nearly meet above 
the head. Then lower them and replace them 
at the patient’s side, and again press upon the 
chest to force the air from tlie lungs, and raise as 
before; repeat the process fifteen times in the 
minute, that being the usual number of inspira¬ 
tions per minute, moving the arms slowly each 
way. The face should be well fanned at the 
same time. Continue this process until life is 
restored or until it is certain that death has act¬ 
ually taken place. While this process is taking 
place, assistants should apply warmth to the ex¬ 
tremities and body. 

In apparent death , from any cause, this proc¬ 
ess should be resorted to. 

UNKNOWN DISEASES. 

It sometimes happens that a person is ailing, 
yet does not know the nature of his disease. 
Perhaps lie is able to keep about and do some 


UNKNOWN DISEASES. 


153 


work, yet there is a general weakened condition 
of the system. He is easily fatigued, does not 
rest well nights, but feels tired or exhausted on 
waking, has no appetite, feels better about ten or 
eleven o’clock in the forenoon, and continues to 
feel so until two or three in the afternoon, then 
begins to be weary. The question is, What ails 
him ? The doctor answers, Nervous debility. 
But what is that ? What are his conditions ? 
They are dyspeptic, with torpid liver, constipated 
or relaxed bowels, weak lungs, and, in fact, nearly 
every internal organ is more or less diseased. 
The organic nervous system is not sustained 
properly because the blood is poor, and this is 
caused by indigestion and a failure to breathe 
enough to properly vivify the blood. Such per¬ 
sons wish to know what to do to regain health. 

Treatment. —He should carefully examine 
every habit of life and ascertain wherein he is 
transgressing the laws of health, and correct 
every false habit. Perhaps the sleeping room is 
not properly ventilated, or it may be the sunlight 
is shut out of the dwelling. The water used 
may be hard or impure, or perhaps he does not 
bathe sufficiently often to keep the pores of the 
skin open. It may be that the food is too highly 
seasoned, or is not properly cooked, or is eaten in 
too large quantities or too frequently, or too late 
in the evening; perhaps tea or coffee is used with 
the food, or too much flesh may be eaten, or fats, 
oils, butter, rich gravy, or preserves, and condi¬ 
ments. Or the food may be imperfectly mastica¬ 
ted, or there may have been exposure to wet and 
cold. The clothing may not be properly adjusted ; 
perhaps the limbs and feet are insufficiently cloth- 

Treafc. Pis. 10 


154 


TREATMENT OF DISEASE. 


eel, while the body may be too warmly clad, or the 
clothing may be too tight. The habits may be 
sedentary, and he may not exercise sufficiently 
to keep up a good circulation, or the exercise 
may not be of the right kind, or he may be over¬ 
worked. Perhaps rest and sleep are not taken 
regularly, or the bed is old and filthy, or is not 
aired daily, or perhaps a feather bed is used, or 
perhaps the night vessel is left standing in the 
room, or left uncovered to send off its effluvia. 
Perhaps the faeces and urine are retained until 
their poisons are reabsorbed by the system, or, in 
the case of females, until by the accumulation 
the uterus is displaced. The bodily positions 
may be wrong, so that by the constant bending 
or crooking of the body some of the internal or¬ 
gans may be so pressed out of position that they 
cannot properly perform their functions. Or it 
may be that there is decaying vegetation near the 
residence, and that the air is tainted with its 
noxious gases. Perhaps a heap of stable or barn¬ 
yard litter, or a pigpen or privy vault, or a pond 
of stagnant water throws off these gases, or the 
cellar may be unventilated or contain decaying 
vegetables, fruit, or meat. 

Perhaps there is some mental difficulty that 
causes the ill health. It may be care and anxiety, 
or worry, or a lack of cheerfulness, or moroseness, 
or despondency, or the mind may be unoccupied 
the patient having no object in life. It may be 
a sense of wrong doing, or a knowledge of duties 
undone, that weighs upon the mind and preys 
upon the health. 

These points should all be considered, for every 
one of the foregoing habits and conditions engen¬ 
ders disease, and prevents a restoration to health; 


CONSTITUTIONAL TREATMENT. 


155 


Therefore let every chronic invalid study well 
the laws of health, and obey them. He should 
also take constitutional treatment. 

CONSTITUTIONAL TREATMENT. 

Many cases of chronic disease require coustitu- 
tional treatment as well as local treatment. By 
constitutional treatment is meant a course of 
treatment calculated to increase the constitu¬ 
tional power and vigor of the patient. This 
treatment consists, first, in putting the patient on 
a plain, unstimulating diet, which must be com¬ 
posed of the very best quality of fruits, grains, 
and vegetables. There should be a variety of 
these provided, so that the weak digestive or¬ 
gans may find plenty of good, nourishing food 
from which to make blood. 

There need not and should not be a very great 
variety at one meal, but there should be in the 
course of the week a good variety used. Sweet 
milk and cream may be used to some extent in 
cooking other food, and, if the patient is not an 
experienced vegetarian, or if he is very much de¬ 
bilitated, he should occasionally, that is, once or 
twice a week, use a little fresh beef or mutton 
that is free from fat. It is far better, however, 
to abstain from such food entirely, as soon as a 
person can habituate himself to a vegetable diet. 

In addition to proper diet, the patient should 
form habits of regularity in all things, and espe¬ 
cially in the time of eating, retiring for sleep, 
amount of exercise, and in moving the bowels. 
The clothing should be worn loose about the 
waist, the feet and limbs should be warmly clad; 
and the patient should spend as much as pos- 


150 


TREATMENT OF DISEASE. 


sible of his time in the open air and sun¬ 
shine—avoiding excessive heat, however—and 
should sleep in a large, airy room. On rising in 
the morning, the patient should rub himself 
briskly with the dry hand for five or ten minutes, 
being careful not to chill. He should also, as 
often as every other day, take a tepid bath of ten 
to twenty minutes’ duration, followed by a cool 
bath for three to five minutes, and this, by a 
thorough drying and dry-hand-rubbing. If he 
has liver, kidney, or bowel difficulty, or trouble 
with the spleen, he should wear the wet-girdle 
three or four nights in the week. If the throat 
is affected, he should wear the compress around it 
nights, keeping it well covered with a dry cloth. 


GLOSSARY. 


Abdomen. The belly. 

Abortion. The expulsion of a foetu3 before the seventh 
month; miscarriage. 

Abscess. A collection of pus in a cavity. 

Actual Cautery. A red-hot iron for cauterizing or 
burning the flesh. 

Acute. An acute disease is one which, with a certain 
degree of severity, has a rapid progress and short 
duration. 

Adhesive Inflammation. That inflammation which 
causes organs to adhere, or stick together. 

Affusion. The act of pouring out. 

Alteratives. Medicines that change the form of the 
disease. 

Alternate. That which happens by turns. 

Anasarca. General dropsy. 

Aneurism. A blood tumor caused by stretching the 
coats of an artery. 

Anthelmintic. A worm medicine. 

Antiseptic. That which prevents putrefaction. 

Ascites. Dropsy of the belly. 

Atrophy. Wasting of the flesh. 

Bronchia. The two tubes, and their branches, which 
arise from the branching of the windpipe. 

Calculi. Gravel or stone found in the liver, kidneys, 
and bladder. 

Catamenia. The monthly flow of females ; the menses. 

Cathartic. A purging medicine. 

Catheter. A tube for drawing off the urine. 

Cerebellum. The hinder and lower part of the brain. 

Cerebrum. The front and upper portion of the brain. 

Chronic. Of long duration. 

Cicatrix. A scar. 

Clyster. An injection; liquid thrown into the intes¬ 
tines. 


( 157 ) 



158 


GLOSSARY. 


Coma, Comatose. Profound sleep. 

Confluent. Running together. 

Constipation. Obstructed bowels. 

Contusion. A bruise. 

Defecation. The act by which the bowels are freed of 
their contents. 

Depuration. Cleansing from impurities. 

Diagnosis. Distinguishing one disease from another. 
Diaphoretic. Medicines that cause sweating. 

Diathesis. Disposition or constitution of the body. 
Diuretic. A medicine that occasions an increased flow 
of the urine. 

Efflorescence. Eruptions; a rash, or a redness of the 
skin. 

Effluvia. Emanations from substances, as from flow¬ 
ers, or from putrid matter. 

Effusion. The same as Affusion, which see. 
Eliminating. Discharging ; throwing off. 

Emmenagogue. A medicine that occasions increased 
bleeding in connection with the menses. 

Enema. An injection. 

Enteritis. Inflammation of the intestines. 

Epidemic. A prevalent disease. 

Epigastric. That part of the belly that lies over the 
stomach. 

Exacerbation. An increase of the manifestations of 
the symptoms in a disease. 

Expectoration. To expel from the chest matters col¬ 
lected there. 

Extravasation. The same as Affusion, which see. 
Exudation. Sweating. 

Faeces. The contents of the large intestine ; the matter 
discharged from the bowels. 

Fauces. The narrow passage between the mouth and 
throat. 

Febrile. Pertaining to fever. 

Fetid. Having an offensive smell. 

Foetus. The child while in the womb. 

Fistula. A pipe formed from an abscess. 

Flaccid. Soft and weak. 

Flatulency. Wind in the stomach and intestines. 

Flux. An unusual discharge from the bowels. 


GLOSSARY. 


159 


Fungus. A spongy growth; proud tiesli. 

Gangrene. Mortification of a part while the body still 
lives. 

Gargle. A wash for the mouth. 

Gastric. Belonging to, or relating to the stomach. 

Hemorrhage. Bleeding; a discharge of blood. 
Hemorrhoids. The piles. 

Hepatic. Pertaining to the liver. 

Hereditary. That which is communicated from parents. 
Herpes. An eruption of the skin; tetter, ring-worm. 
Hernia. A rupture and protrusion of some part of the 
abdomen. 

Hygiene. The art of preserving the health. 

Idiopathic. Any primary disease is idiopathic. 
Indurated. Hardened. 

Ingestion. Placing within the stomach. 

Ingestci. That which is within the stomach. 

Lethargy. Excessive sleepiness. 

Lesion. A hurt, wound, or disorder. 

Lochia. A bloody and watery discharge, following the 
delivery of a child. 

Lumbago. Rheumatism in the loins or small of the 
back. 

Menses. The monthly discharges of females. 
Metastasis. A removal of a disease from one part of 
the body to another. 

Micturition. The act of passing water. 

Morbid. Diseased, or relating to disease. 

Morbific. Causing disease. 

Narcotic. A stupefying drug. 

Nausea. Inclination to vomit. 

Opthalmia. Inflammation of the eyes. 

Organic. Composed of organs. 

Osseous. Relating to bones. 

Ova , Ovum , Ovules. Germinal particles ; eggs. 

Ovaries. The organs which produce the ova, or eggs. 

Panacea. A pretended universal remedy. 

Paralysis. A loss of voluntary motion. 


160 


GLOSSARY. 


Paroxysm. A periodical fit of a disease. 

Permeate. To pass through the pores. 

Polypus. A tumor that forms on a mucous membrane. 
Prophylactic. A preventive, or a preservative. 
Pulmonary. Relating to the lungs. 

Purulent. That which has the character of pus. 

Rectum. The lower part of the large intestine. 
Regimen. The regulation of the diet. 

Resuscitate. To recover from apparent death. 

Saccharine. Having the quality of sugar. 

Sanguine. Bloody ; blood-like. 

Scirrhus. Hard ; knotty ; hard cancer. 

Scorbutic. Pertaining to scurvy. 

Sedentary. Inactive. 

Serous. Thin ; watery. 

Serum. The watery portion of the blood. 

Strang nary. Extremely difficult and painful urination. 
Stricture. A contracted condition of some tube or duct. 
Suppurate. To form pus. 

Syncope. Sudden and complete fainting. 

Tenesmus. Bearing down ; frequent, vain, and pain¬ 
ful desire to evacuate the bowels. 

Torminia. Griping pains in the bowels. 

Traction. Gradual, steady pulling. 

Trachea. The windpipe. 

Tubercle. A tumor in the substance of an organ. 
Tumefaction. Swelling. 

Umbilicus. • The navel. 

Ureter. A tube or duct through which urine is con¬ 
veyed from the kidneys to the bladder. 

Urethra. The canal through which the urine passes 
when discharged from the bladder. 

Uterus. The womb ; the organ containing the child 
before its birth. 

Vagina. The canal that leads from the external organs 
of generation to the womb. 

Vertigo. Dizziness. 

Vesication. Raising blisters. 

Vesicle. A small cavity. 

Viscera. The internal organs of the body. 

Viscid. Sticky. 

4/ 


HEALTH IS HAPPINESS! 


J8®“KEAD, AMD BEAK IN MIND.“=©a 


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The Hygienic Family Physician. 

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OUR BOOK LIST. 


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ject. Of this subject, and this work, the compiler in his 
preface says :— 

“It is disagreeable.to call attention to those sins of 
youth, and the abuses and excesses, even in the married 
life, which are ruining the souls and bodies of tens of thou¬ 
sands ; especially so, while feelings of great delicacy, rel¬ 
ative to the subject, exist in the public mind. But dis¬ 
agreeable though the task may be, facts, terrible facts of 
every-day observation, fully justify a solemn and faithful 
warning to all. We would cherish the profoundest re¬ 
spect for the delicate feelings of the truly modest and 
the really virtuous ; but we confess our want of respect 
for that false delicacy in many which takes fright at the 










G 


OUIl BOOK LIST. 


mention of those vices, in consequence of which, they 
themselves exhibit evident marks of rapid decay. 

‘ 4 The reader may as well prepare at the first, by laying 
aside feelings of false delicacy, if he is troubled with them, 
to be benefited by the painful facts, plainly stated in this 
work. The real value of the lengthy article on 

“ CHASTITY ” 

Cannot be estimated by dollars and cents. Every youth 
in the land should read it. And not only the youth, but 
every parent and guardian, should study it well, and be 
prepared in a proper way to warn those children under 
their immediate care. And let every mother be stirred 
by the article under the caption of 

“APPEAL TO MOTHERS.” 

It comes from a mother’s heart—from one who has had 
experience in laboring for the unfortunate victims of se¬ 
cret vice, and is imbued with the importance of the sub¬ 
ject. The extracts entitled 

“EVILS AND REMEDY,” 

Although unvailing many dark pictures, are entitled to 
consideration as the utterances of one whose extensive 
study of human nature has qualified him to speak to the 
point on this important subject.” 

Published at the Health Reformer Office. Price, post¬ 
paid, bound in cloth, GO cents ; in paper cover, 30 cents. 

■ - »o« - 

THREE-CENT TRACTS. 

The following tracts are offered, post-paid, for three 
cents each, or two dollars per hundred. This list of 
tracts will be greatly increased. 

Dyspepsia: Its Causes, Prevention, and Cure. 

The Dress Reform: Containing reasons for the most 
Healthful, most Modest, and most Convenient Style of 
Woman’s Dress. 

The Principles of Health Preform: Important to 
those wdiose minds should be called to first principles. 




THE HEALTH REFORMER. 


This is a monthly journal devoted to physical, mental, 
and moral culture. 

ITS MISSIOhT. 

As indicated in the prospectus, its mission is to con¬ 
tribute to the improvement of mankind physically, men¬ 
tally, and morally. Of the necessity for reform in these 
particulars, we need not speak; for the alarming evi¬ 
dences of physical degeneracy and disease, mental ineffi¬ 
ciency, and moral turpitude, which we see about us on 
every hand, speak more loudly than can words of the cry¬ 
ing need of immediate and thorough reformation. 

Progression is the spirit of the times. Social reform, 
prison reform, civil service reform, and various other re¬ 
forms, each in its turn, call for the careful and candid 
consideration and hearty co-operation of every intelligent 
man and woman. And very just and appropriate is this 
demand; for nothing can be more promotive of the in¬ 
terests of society than improvement—progression— re¬ 
form. Without this, stagnation would result, and civili¬ 
zation would soon degenerate into the veriest barbarism. 
Its value, then, cannot be overestimated; and every truly 
reformatory movement should receive our most serious 
and attentive consideration. 

As its name would suggest, the Health Reformer 


8 


THE HEALTH REFORMER. 


is published in the interest of a reformation which has a 
special bearing upon health ; health—physical, mental, 
and moral. Perfect physical development, clear mental 
faculties, and acute moral sensibilities, constitute the per¬ 
fection of manhood or womanhood. Can there be any¬ 
thing more important, then, than a reform which aims to 
secure these three conditions, which, when attained, will 
place a person in that state of perfection which will en¬ 
able him to realize the highest degree of enjoyment pos¬ 
sible for man to experience? May we not justly claim 
that, while the reforms which have been mentioned are 
of great moment and absorbing interest, they are all 
eclipsed by the far greater importance of this reform 
which deals with those principles which underlie the 
whole superstructure of moral and social life, and which 
strike at the very root of all the evils which curse society, 
and rest like a mighty incubus upon the world ? 

PLAN OF ACTION. 

In order to accomplish the desired object, which lias 
already been set forth, the conductors of the Reformer 
have adopted this as a fundamental principle of action: 
Physical reform is the basis of all reform. The truth 
of this principle is evident when we consider, 

1. The intimate relation of mind and matter, and the 
wonderful manner in which the mind is affected by the 
varying conditions of the body; so that whenever the 
body suffers from serious injury of any kind, the mind 
is correspondingly impaired, as is seen in the fever 
patient raving in the wildness of delirium. 


THE HEALTH REFORMER 


9 


2. Tlie fact that the condition of a person’s moral or¬ 
gans depends so largely upon that of the body and mind; 
as is illustrated by the victim of despair who labors under 
the impression that his doom is sealed, when his only 
difficulty is a torpid liver ; or the irritable, misanthropic 
dyspeptic, whose unhappy mental condition is wholly duo 
to a disordered stomach. 

In view of these facts, it appears that the most im¬ 
portant branch of the work of the Reformer is in the 
direction of physical improvement and reform, since 
the success of each of the other branches is contingent 
upon the success of this. 

But while constantly aiming at reform, and so con¬ 
tending against adverse and opposing influences, the con¬ 
ductors of the Reformer are careful to avoid those ex¬ 
tremes into which so many reformers allow themselves, 
unwittingly, perhaps, to be led. They also ever seek to 
manifest that liberality of sentiment which is in harmony 
with the spirit of the present time, when every man is 
expected and urged to think and form opinions for him¬ 
self. By so doing, they hope to incite a spirit of investi¬ 
gation, which, when pursued with candor and an unbiased 
judgment, can hardly fail to convince the reader of the 
truth of the positions taken. 

Those who conduct the Reformer endeavor to fill 
its columns with matter of practical importance and inter¬ 
est to every subscriber. Thorough instruction is given 
in regard to these two most important subjects, 


10 


THE HEALTH REFORMER. 


HOY/ TO RECOVER HEALTH, AND HOY/ 

TO RETAIN IT, 

These subjects being treated by those whose personal ex¬ 
perience enables them to speak understandingly. In fact, 
we put forth every effort to make the Reformer indis¬ 
pensable to every household , and of especial interest to 
that exceedingly large and unfortunate class of individ¬ 
uals who have bien brought into the condition of inva¬ 
lids by disease. But the subject of health, proper, by 
no means receives exclusive attention. Considerable 
space is each month devoted to general literature, impor¬ 
tant and interesting discoveries in the arts and sciences, 
and such other subjects as are of general interest. 

PRESENT PROSPECTS. 

Notwithstanding the numerous and almost insurmount¬ 
able obstacles with which it has been obliged to contend, 
the Reformer has made constant and rapid progress in 
extending its sphere of usefulness, until it is now estab¬ 
lished upon a firm and satisfactory basis, being furnished 
with an able corps of contributors, numbering its patrons 
by thousands throughout the United States and Terri¬ 
tories. 

The publishers of this journal are actuated by purely 
philanthropic motives, and hence offer it at such terms 
as will enable every person to obtain it who has any de¬ 
gree of interest in the important subjects, How to GET 
WELL and now to KEEP WELL. Terms, $1.00 a 
year, in advance. Specimen copies sent free on application. 
Address, Health Reformer, Battle Creek. Mich. 


THE HEALTH INSTITUTE. 


LOCATION. 

This model health institution is situated in the most 
healthful and delightful part of the proverbially neat and 
enterprising city of Battle Creek, Michigan, an impor¬ 
tant station on the Michigan Central B. B., about half 
way between Chicago and Detroit. Several railroads 
intersect at this point, making it easy of access from all 
directions. 

GROUNDS. 

The grounds are ample, consisting of a site of about 
twenty acres, a large portion of which is covered with 
shade, ornamental, and fruit trees. They are also high, 
overlooking the entire city, and affording a fine view of 
the landscape for miles around. 

The soil is of such a nature that mud is almost en¬ 
tirely unknown, a few hours of sunshine after a rain 
rendering the walks and roads in and about the grounds 
so free from dampness that the most delicate invalid may 
indulge freely in the benefits of out-of-door life and ex¬ 
ercise. 

In front of the main building, and between it and the 
road, is a beautiful grove, which extends along the street 
in each direction from it, some thirty rods, affording a 



12 


THE HEALTH INSTITUTE. 


delightful place of resort during the summer months. 
The grove is also provided with such means of exercise 
and recreation as are both healthful and entertaining ; as 
croquet grounds, conveniences for gymnastic exercises, 
etc. 

BUILDINGS. 

These comprise a large main building, and seven fine 
cottages, all situated upon the same site. The main 
building contains commodious parlors, dining halls, bath 
and movement rooms, etc., etc., while the other buildings 
are fitted up as private apartments for patients. By this 
means are secured that cpiiet and retirement which are of 
such paramount importance to the invalid, and which 
cannot be obtained in an institution where scores of suf¬ 
fering individuals are crowded together under one roof. 

ROOMS 

Are large and well ventilated, and are furnished much 
better than in any other institution of the kind, thus af¬ 
fording the patient all the luxuries and comforts which 
he enjoys at home, and many more. 

PLAN OF TREATMENT. 

At this institution diseases are treated on strictly hy¬ 
gienic principles; that is, only those remedies are em¬ 
ployed which will assist nature in her healing work, and 
will in no way endanger the life or constitution of the 
patient. Drugs and poisons of every description arc en¬ 
tirely discarded as curative agents ) but all known means 


THE HEALTH INSTITUTE. 


13 


of restoring health are constantly employed, poisons alone 
being excluded from our materia medica. 

OUR REMEDIES 

Then arc Light, Water, Air, Electricity, Exercise, Cheer¬ 
fulness, Rest, Sleep, Proper Clothing, Proper Food, and, 
in fact, all Hygienic and Sanitary Agents. 

OUR PHYSICIANS. 

The medical faculty of the institution is composed of 
an adequate number of conscientious, watchful and effi¬ 
cient physicians, who give personal and unremitting care 
and attention to their patients, anticipating, as far as pos¬ 
sible, their wants, carefully studying their cases, and ap¬ 
plying every means in their power to restore them to 
health. 


OUR FACILITIES. 

Very few institutions are provided with conveniences 
and advantages equal to ours. Our bath rooms are both 
capacious and convenient, and are furnished with an in¬ 
exhaustible supply of pure, soft water. Several rooms 
are also prepared especially for the administration of the 
Sun-Bath. 


SPECIAL ADVANTAGES. 

In addition to the appliances usually employed in such 
institutions, we make use of the Hot-Air Bath (which 
possesses all the virtues of the Turkish-Bath, while avoid- 


14 


THE HEALTH INSTITUTE. 


mg its evils), the much-renowned Electric or Electro- 
Thermal-Bath, the Lift Cure, and the celebrated Swed¬ 
ish Movement Cure, which are so successful in many 
cases which cannot be reached by other means. 

DIET. 

While we reject from our dietary those pernicious 
drinks and condiments which are the potent agents in 
bringing thousanis to untimely graves, we take care to 
supply our table with an abundance of nutritious and 
palatable food, consisting of fruits, grains, and vegetables. 
We do not enforce, however, a radical and immediate 
change from old habits, but give the patient time to ac¬ 
commodate himself to the new diet. 

OUR SUCCESS. 

The class of individuals who seek aid at our institution 
is very largely composed of those who are afflicted with 
chronic diseases, and who have been drugged and poi¬ 
soned until their vitality has become well-nigh exhausted, 
and they are given up by their friends and medical ad¬ 
visers to die. Under these circumstances, they come to 
us as a final resort, and, thanks to a true and potent 
system of treatment, this last hope is seldom disappoint¬ 
ed. Among the hundreds who have thus come to us and 
found relief from their ills and pains, during the eight 
years since the establishment of this institution, the fol¬ 
lowing cases, here briefly reported, have been treated 
within the last few months:— 


THE HEALTH INSTITUTE. 


15 


CONSUMPTION. 

Many cases might be cited, and references given, in 
which this most insidious and hopeless of all diseases has 
been robbed of its victims and a new lease of life given 
them by a few months’ stay with us. 

DYSPEPSIA. 

Hundreds have come to us afflicted with this most de¬ 
plorable disease in its most aggravated forms, and, after 
staying a proper time, have returned to their friends re¬ 
lieved of their sufferings. 

PARALYSIS. 

Even this formidable disease is, in many cases, treated 
with entire success, the use of paralyzed organs being 
wholly restored. 

DROPSY. 

In one case, the patient came to the Institute after 
having been given up to die by friends and physicians. 
He had been tapped many times, as the accumulation of 
fluid was so rapid that respiration was rendered ex¬ 
tremely difficult in a few days. Cured in a few months, 
and reports himself still in good health. 

SCROFULA. 

Many cases of scrofula, often complicated with dys¬ 
pepsia, affections of the lungs, etc., have been treated 
with marked success. In one case, the patient had sev- 


16 


THE HEALTH INSTITUTE. 


oral large tumors, one nearly as large as an ordinary 
bowl. After a few weeks’ treatment, nature began the 
curative work of absorption, thus effecting a cure. This 
case had been considered entirely hopeless. 

But space will not allow further description of the 
desperate cases which have received treatment and resto¬ 
ration at this institution; but we may add that equally 
good success has attended the treatment of Asthma, 
Kidney Difficulties (of the worst forms), Chronic Diar¬ 
rhea, Chronic Congestion of the Brain, Cancer, Palpita¬ 
tion of the Heart, Bheumatism, Neuralgia, Epilepsy, 
Bronchitis, Piles, Ulceration of Bowels, Catarrh of Blad¬ 
der and Bowels, Constipation (in some cases without a 
natural passage for many years), Spermatorrhea, and, in 
fact, Chronic Diseases of all kinds. 

The most flattering success has attended the treatment 
of Uterine Difficulties, and all other Diseases of Women, 
which receive special attention. 

ACUTE DISEASES. 

Our mode of treatment is specially adapted to this 
class of diseases, meeting with the most uniform success 
with Pevers and Inflammations of every type and form, 
all Eruptive Diseases, etc., etc. 

To the sick, we say, Do not delay seeking our assist¬ 
ance until your case is hopeless. Write at once for our 
Circular, which will be sent free on application. 

Address, HEALTH INSTITUTE, 

Battle Creek, Mich. 


THE 


TREATMENT OF DISEASE 


HYGIENIC AGENCIES. 

A GUIDE FOR 


TREATING THE SICK 

WITHOUT MEDICINE. 


BY M. G. KELLOGG, M. D. 


PUBLISHED AT 

THE OFFICE OF THE HEALTH REFORMER, 
BATTLE CREEK, MICH. 


1874 , 











THE FOUNTAIN SYRINGE. 


In offering this Syringe to the public, we feel assured that 
it must rapidly take the place of all other kinds, as all who 
have tried it agree in saying that no other Syringe should be 

The Fountain Syr¬ 
inge is simple in its 
construction and op¬ 
eration, so that fee¬ 
ble persons can use 
it without assistance, 
being entirely self¬ 
acting by the weight of 
the liquid used. The 
Fountain must be 
suspended three or 
four feet above the 
point of application 
The force thus ob¬ 
tained is found a- ; 
bundantly sufficient 
for every purpose, and in fact has been pronounced by reli¬ 
able authority the only safe method to which the system 
should be subjected. 

One will last a lifetime, requiring no repairs, as there 
are no valves, nor anything that can possibly get out of or¬ 
der, consequently they are always ready for use. 

The Fountain Syringe cannot possibly inject air —which 
is the cause of so much suffering from the use of all other 
kinds, and on this account no other Syringe should be used. 

It is not only a perfect enema-giving instrument of itself, 
but by glancing at the cut it will be perceived that it is a 
combination of which no other Syringe is capable. No. 1 is 
a Sprinkler for a light shower-bath,—clothes, floors, plants, 
etc., etc. No. 2 is a Nasal Douche, which alone is worth 
the entire price of the article. No. 3 is lor children and the 
ear. No. 4 is for the Rectum. No. 5, the Vaginal. 

Manufactured and for sale by Fairbanks & Co., No. 121 
Court Street, Boston , Mass. 

jg^gf'AVe offer the Fountain Syringe, post-paid, at manu¬ 
facturers’ prices, as follows: No. 1, $2.50; No. 2, $3.00; 
No. 3, $3.50. 

Address, HAELTII REFORMER, 

Battle Creek , Mich. 































OUR BOOK LIST. 


The Hygienie Family Physician. As the title suggests, this 
work is especially designed for family use. The book is of a 
thoroughly practical nature, and should be in the hands of 
every family in the land, as it affords instruction of the most 
vi'al importance. It is “a complete guide for the preserva¬ 
tion of health and the treatment of disease without the use 
of medicine.” 

Published at the Health Reformer Office. Cloth, bound, 
380 pp. Price, post-paid, $1.00. 

Good Health, and How to Preserve It. A brief treatise on the 
various hygienic agents and conditions which are essential 
for the preservation of health. 

Published at the Health Reformer Office. Price, post-paid, 
10 cents. 

Nature and Cause ot Disease. This is a clear and compre¬ 
hensive exposition of the nature and true cause of disease, 
and also exposes the absurdity and falsity of drug medication. 

Published at the Health Reformer Office. Price, post-paid, 
15 cents. 

The Bath. Contains a full description of the various baths 
employed in the hygienic treatment of disease, and the man¬ 
ner of applying them. 

Published at the Health Reformer Office. Price, post-paid, 
20 cents. 

The Treatment of Disease. For all who are not educated in 
the theory and practice of medicine. The only remedies rec¬ 
ommended are strictly hygienic. 

Published at the Health Reformer Office. Price, post-paid, 
35 cents. 

The Hygienic System. By R. T. Trail, M. D. Published at 
the Health Reformer Office. Price, post-paid, 15 cents. 

Tobacco- Using. By R. T. Trail, M. D. Published at the 
Health Reformer Office. Price, post-paid, 15 cents. 


















Our Book List,—Continued. 


Health and Diseases of Woman. By R. T. Trail, M. D. 
Published at the Health Reformer Office. Price, post-paid, 
15 cents. 

Science of Human Life. This pamphlet contains three of 
the most important of Graham’s Lectures. Published at the 
Health Reformer Office. Price, post-paid, 35 cents. 

Hand-Book of Health. Treating on Physiology and Hygi¬ 
ene. Published at the Health Reformer Office. Price, post¬ 
paid, bound in cloth, 60 cents; in paper cover, 35 cents. 

Cook Book, or Kitchen Guide. This work comprises reci¬ 
pes for the preparation of hygienic food, and advice relative 
to change cf diet. Published at the Health Reformer Of¬ 
fice. Price, post-paid, 25 cents. 

Exhausted Vitality. A Solemn Appeal Relative to Solitary 
Vice, and the Abuses and Excesses of the Marriage Rela¬ 
tion. Published at the Health Reformer Office. Price, post¬ 
paid, bound in cloth, 60 cents ; in paper cover, 30 cents. 

Hydropathic Encyclopedia. Trail. Price, post-paid, $4.00. 

Science of Human Life. By Sylvester Graham, M. D.— 
Price, post-paid, $3.00. 

Domestic Practice. Johnson. Price, post-paid, $1.75. 

Health Tracts. Dyspepsia—Dress Reform—Principles of 
Health Reform. By mail, post-paid, three cents each, or 
$2.00 per hundred. 

Address, HEALTH REFORMER, 

Battle Creek , Mich. 


WATER FILTER. 

We furnish to order, Kedzie’s Water Filters, at the fol¬ 
lowing prices: No. 1, $9.00; No. 2, $10.50; No. 3, $12.00; 

Vo. 4, $13 50; No. 5, $15.00. Freight will be added. 

Address, HEALTH REFORMER, Battle Creek, Mich. 

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Neutralizing agent: Magnesium Oxide 
Treatment Date: June 2016 

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A WORLD LEADER IN COLLECTIONS PRESERVATION 

111 Thomson Park Drive 
Cranberry Township, PA 16066 
(724) 779-2111 


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